the magic of a boarding school
by Goddess of glam
Summary: Sakura has decided to attend a boarding school for the magic-blooded and faces challenges being the only student in the whole school that doesn't come from a family of magic-blood. What happens when another school's students come to live and study with them because of an accident in their old school? Who is the secret relative Sakura has that is of magical-blood?
1. Chapter 1

So, here I have a new story for you that just popped into my head after watching this specific anime that acts as inspiration to this story. I'm obsessed with this new anime called _little witch academia_ so consider yourselves warned about possible similarities between this story and the anime. For example I took the magic academy basically from the anime; it's name is the same because I have no creativity whatsoever and I'll just insert a picture of the building so everyone can check it out (cause I really suck at describing complex buildings).

 **update note on the pic** : apparently I cannot post links so I'll try to make this as easy as possible, just copy bit .ly/2rNrKuJ without the space and it should take you to the picture

Lets just get it out of the way so I don't have to post any disclaimers in the future chapters - since I expect everyone to atleast read the first chapter.

SO

I draw inspiration from an anime called **Naruto** and **little witch academia** but do not own either of them. Consider yourselves warned.

* * *

Sakura snapped out from her daydreams when she felt the humming of the car she was in stop. She heard the stern bus driver yelling that everyone should get out of the bus. She complied and non-chalantly picked up her belongings, a black leather backpack and a pink suitcase that had cherry blossoms on it, and popped out onto the street. Sakura looked around her. There were people bumping into her on the busy street that was lined with scyscrapers all around. She hurried to grab a flyer she had in her pocket. It was rectangular and very plain looking – just like any other tourist guide you'd grab. But this one wasn't a tourist guide, this was her map to her new life. Sakura held the flyer in her hands, trying to figure out which way she was even supposed to look at it. Looking around her, she saw nothing that could help her on her quest of finding her new school.

She rubbed her forehead and tucked a few strands of pink hair dangling in front of her face behind her ear when trying to decrypt this awful piece of paper she was provided with.

"How is anyone supposed to understand anything of this?" she muttered to herself and smoothly tried to join the mass of people walking on the street, minding their own business.

She felt alone even though she was walking amongst lots of people, there were atleast 10 people within her touching-range. Many of them were talking on their cellphones, some had hands-free earpieces which seemed weird to Sakura. A subtle breeze brushed against her skin and threw her hair around. Even though her hair barely reached her shoulders, it could really get in her face. Brushing the pink locks away she stared at the piece of paper.

'You useless piece of paper..' she thought to herself. And with that a strong wind blew over her and grabbed the flyer right out of her hand, leaving her in the big city with nothing to guide her. It took a while for Sakura to pick up on what had just happened. Her emerald eyes widened as she bit her bottom lip, trying not to start screaming and crying out of frustration in the middle of a busy street with lots of people around.

Digging her nails to her palms she picked up her suitcase and hurried forwards. She didn't know what to do, not that she knew what she was doing in the first place, but that map – as annoying as it was – was her only way to find her way to her new school. She didn't really know much about her new school either, other than that there she could become one of the strong female witches her grandmother used to tell stories about.

She lifted her gaze up from her feet to have another look around.

'Maybe I could ask someone..' she though to herself, shifting her gaze around the people she was surrounded with. She gathered up the courage to ask a lady that was walking beside her.

"I-I'm sorry but do you know where I can find Luna Nova academy?" Sakura asked.

The lady turned her head to her direction. Her face was stern and she didn't look like she was very interested in Sakura. Her brown eyes looked Sakura up and down, from head to toe. Sakura thought it was impossible for someone to show so much condescension towards her in a few seconds. The pinkette wasn't sure if this lady knew what she was talking about and knowingly didn't tell her or if she just didn't know, but she shook her head and without saying anything, she continued walking, leaving Sakura just standing there.

"Rude much." she murmured after the lady was gone. She could still see her blonde hair somewhere in the crowd of other people. She continued to ask other people but no-one knew where she was headed. She got lots of polite answers but most of them were just plain rude. She dragged herself into a coffee shop that she conveniently encountered.

Walking in she felt warm air brush against her skin. The coffee shop was nice, it had a cool rustic vibe to it that Sakura really liked. She walked up to the counter and eyed the row of succulent and other cute houseplants that were placed all around the shop.

"A mocha frappuchino, thanks." Sakura ordered from the waitress behind the counter. She had luscious brown hair that reached her mid-back and she smiled back to Sakura. Maybe the nicest thing since she got to this damn city.

"Take a seat, I'll bring it to your table." She politely told Sakura and she went off to find a seat. She sat down to a small table that had only two chairs around it and rubbed her temples with the tip of her fingers. She could feel a nasty headache coming. Suddenly she remembered her grandmother telling her that rubbing the skin between your pointer finger and thumb could help, so she placed her right pointerfinger and thumb on each side of her palm and started rubbing the spot. She wasn't very patient with the method and just came to the conclusion that it didn't work after 30 seconds, exactly when her drink arrived.

 _'Ugh. Maybe I actually am a caffeine addict..' Sakura thought when bringing cool glass to her lips._

She took a sip of her delicious drink. It tickled her tastebuds in the greatest of ways. Sakura wasn't a big fan of bitter coffee, sweeter drinks suited her better.

Sakura buried her head in her hands. How would she find her way to her school in time for the opening ceremony? From what she'd heard, if you came late, they would close the gates and you couldn't get in until tomorrow but by then accepting your place as a student would have already ended and someone else would come to take your place. How could she wait another year to follow her dreams. She heard people come and go in the coffee shop but she wasn't really bothered by it, she had her own problem to worry about that were about to consume her.

Suddenly she heard the chair opposite of her scrape against the tile floor and she quickly looked up from her hands. Her green eyes met with the mesmerizing blue eyes of the blonde guy looking down at her sympathetically, smiling a little.

"Is this chair free?" He asked and Sakura nodded in return. He sat down and ran his hands through his blonde spiky hair. "Rough day?" He asked.

"Yeah." Sakura sighed and took another sip of her drink. The guy didn't respond with words, but Sakura could see the questioning look he had. She wasn't exactly comfortable with strangers, but what the hell, she had just thought about giving up on her dreams so why not divulge her stressful situation to a complete stranger who, maybe out of plain politeness, seemed to care. "I'm supposed to start a new school year today and I can't be late but I lost my map and can't find my way anywhere around here. So now I'm here sipping my coffee, contemplating whether or not I should just go home and forget this day even happened."

" _Naruto, what do you want?"_ Some guy behind him asked when he was ordering. The guy opposite to her glanced over his shoulder at the black haired guy she presumed was his friend.

"Normal coffee with milk, no sugar. Remember, I'm supposed to be on a _diet_." He said and turned around back to face Sakura. "Sorry about that."

"It's okay." Sakura answered, a slight smile rising to her lips after hearing the tone of the person referred to as Naruto when using the word diet.

"But hey I'm starting today too, where are you headed?" He asked her. His voice had this energy to it and he was clearly happy, which made Sakura also cheer up a bit.

"Luna Nova, have you heard of it?" Sakura said looking at her drink. None of the people she'd asked had even heard of it so she didn't have her hopes high.

"Oh yeah!" He answered. It took a while for the pinkette to take in the information, but as soon as she did, her eyes widened in shock.

"Reallywhere?" She said maybe a little too excited and fast. All of these emotions were rushing through her, she was happy, excited, nervous - she'd gotten her hopes up again. With the surge of energy and excitement, she hadn't noticed that she was on her feet and leaning over the table with her back straightened.

The blonde laughed at her. "It's a few blocks from here, just continue walking that way", he pointed to Sakura's right, "and when you see this tall glass building that has a big fancy gate in front of it, you're basically there." He said before turning to his friend that had his drink in his hand.

"Hey I gotta go but I hope you find your way." He said picking his drink up from his friend. "Oh, and my name is Naruto, Naruto Uzumaki."

"Sakura." She answered and took another sip from her drink. Naruto didn't really hurry around and he adjusted the chair back under the table.

His friend was already out of the door when Naruto realized he'd even exited the café. "Uh I gotta go but it was nice to meet you. Bye magic-girl." He said in a hurry and ran after his friend with his coffee almost spilling everywhere.

Sakura smiled. Maybe there really were good people in this city. She waved her hand to his direction and continued to sip on her drink.

'Magic-girl?'

As realization dawned upon her, she almost choked on her drink. People started to look at her, so she avoided eye-contact while banging her chest with a fist to get a breath. She grabbed her drink and her stuff and headed outside. The waitress that served her waved at her as she walked out. Sakura saw her through the window and waved back at her. She'd definitely come back here and have another cup of coffee.

Stepping back up to the street she glanced at her phone.

"11.42 am! It starts at noon!" She almost shrieked and without even glancing at the people around her, who were clearly baffled by the pink haired girl screaming, she started running. She followed Naruto's orders and looked for a tall building with a 'fancy' gate, as Naruto had put it.

"Gate. Gate. Gate.." She murmured to herself. Suddenly she found herself looking at a big iron gate. She glaced over it and saw a scryscraper with walls practically made of windows. The building was so tall she couldn't even count how many floors it had.

"Gate." Sakura smiled as she started walking towards the large doors she anticipated were where she was supposed to enter.

Suddenly she felt herself being thrown forwards and fell on her face. "Oww.." she groaned rubbing her nose. She didn't think she'd tripped, how could she trip and fall on – grass? Sakura really looked where she'd fell, she was on her knees, _on grass_ , with her suitcase and backpack not too far away from her.

" _Look at her, it's like she's never gone through a portal."_ Sakura heard someone shout in a mocking tone. She looked around her and saw this mindblowing – almost castle like – building that was going to be her home for the next few years. Then she turned to look at a group of girls that were pointing and laughing at her. She felt anger bubble up in her stomach and blood rush to the apples of her cheeks.

"A-are you okay?" a careful but sweet voice behind her asked. Sakura turned around quickly to face the pale, blue haired girl that was offering her hand to her. Sakura grabbed it and got up, dusting dirt from her clothes. "Thanks alot." Sakura smiled at her. She had long dark hair that had a blue tint to it and almost translucent eyes, lively and beautiful ones. And they were now staring at her.

"Uhh what did you say?" Sakura asked apologizingly when she realized that she'd missed the girl's question completely. The girl smiled at her, seeing that she was a little confused about everything.

"I asked if you'd never traveled through a portal before." she calmly asked and picked up Sakura's backpack kindly handing it to her.

"Uhh, well.." Sakura mumbled looking down at her blue skinny jeans that were tucked away in her black booties. "No, I haven't, and that kinda threw me off." she admitted to the girl.

"That's okay, the first time is always the hardest. I almost puked on my first time." Her words comforted Sakura. "What's your name?"

"Sakura Haruno." the pinkette answered and picked up her suitcase. "What's yours?" She asked her, right now she just didn't want to be alone so making a friend really couldn't hurt.

"Nice to meet you, Sakura. I'm Hinata, now come on let's not be late on our first day." Hinata turned and started walking towards the school. Sakura hurried after her and started walking beside her.

"So, are you new here?" Sakura asked and tucked a few strands of hair behind her ear.

"Yeah this is my first year but I come from a magical bloodline so magic isn't a completely new consept for me. Most of us students are from magic families." Hinata explained and Sakura frowned. Her parents weren't witches or wizards or anything, she was a normal girl.

"I don't.." she silently muttered but that didn't seem to bother Hinata.

"That's fine, if you didn't have any magic in you, you wouldn't have been able to get through the portal, which means that even if you don't come from a magical bloodline, you can still practice magic." Sakura listened to Hinata when she explained to her that her heritage didn't really matter. She started thinking, who could be the witch in her family, since mostly women practiced magic.

* * *

And that concludes the first chapter of my new series. Hope you enjoyed and remember that reviews are always welcome!

❦ Goddess of glam


	2. Chapter 2

Sakura slouched out of her seat and looked at Hinata after what seemed like hours. Her backpack and suitcase were placed under her chair. Hinata had cast a spell that made her baggage mini-sized so that they'd fit comfortably under her seat, since she hadn't had time to check out her room yet - not that she even knew where it was. Her expression was a mixture of boredom, agony and a hint of sleepiness since the pinkette might've actually fallen asleep for a few minutes right before the ceremony's ending and woke up to the noise of people leaving the auditorium. After seeing Hinata stand up and leave her seat, Sakura grabbed her things and slouched down the marble stairs that lined the auditorium, she was bored out of her mind by the 'opening ceremony'.

It had started out with the headmistress welcoming the students for another semester and she swiftly followed it with a speech, which Sakura had found very inspiring. The headmistress was rumoured to be centuries old, but she looked so young and beautiful that Sakura found it hard to believe. She had long blonde hair that was tied to two pig-tails behind her back and honey brown eyes that seemed warm but harsh at the same time. She looked so tall when she stood in front of all of the students, the pinkette only wished to be so strong and tall. Sakura found her to be the definition of beautiful with her strong but inspiring speech and swift but graceful movements. After that the boredom begun. There were multiple teachers speaking about _important things_ but Sakura had no interest in them.

'No magic outside school grounds?!' she remembered hissing to Hinata when a professor explained that they couldn't use magic in the city. She heard Hinata giggle and grab something from her bag that turned out to be a wand. Sakura looked at it in awe, her eyes glittering when sliding her fingers on the wand's surface. **(A/N** **bit .ly** **/2qWJjLO without the space** It was silvery, very plain but Sakura found it to be maybe the most interesting thing in her life.

"We need the power of the sorcerer's stone to be able to use magic and it's range doesn't reach the city." Hinata whispered, explaining to Sakura what was going on since she clearly hadn't been listening to anything that the professor had been saying, which Hinata found rather amusing. Sakura was completely different from any other person she'd ever met and she intrigued her, there was just something about Sakura that made Hinata like her.

* * *

After the end of the opening ceremony, which felt more like a lecture than a ceremony to welcome the students, she and Hinata were caught by a watchful eye of a professor that called out to them.

"You, pink and blue, come on over here." They heard a strong voice calling to them. At first they weren't sure if it was them the raspy voice was yelling at, but they stopped walking, stood still and slowly turned around - just to be sure.

"You!" The teacher called out pointing to Sakura, "what's your name?"

"Sakura Haruno." she answered, feeling her mouth dry and her face getting paler and paler. The professor's beady black eyes examined her carefully, she looked like she was angry, her brows furrowed and mouth like a straight black line drawn on her face.

"And you?" the professor they'd seen give a lecture about school policy and rules asked Hinata.

Hinata went completely white. She didn't move, she didn't blink. Sakura wasn't sure if her new found friend was even breathing. Sakura watched the frozen Hinata and gave her a hard poke to her side to snap her out of whatever trance she was in. In result Hinata yelped and managed to stutter her name out to the teacher.

"H-hinata Hy-hyuga."

"Oh we have a Hyuga this semester, how wonderful." Sakura didn't understand what the professor was talking about, Hinata wasn't saying anything either. "Aha, it seems like you've already found each other." The professor said, digging though her notebook probably filled with names of students and other vital information. Her response left Sakura and Hinata confused. What did she mean by already finding each other?

"It says here that you'll be rooming with Yamanaka Ino and no last name Tenten." the professor said reading out the names from her stack of papers, but soon glancing at them again. Sakura could swear she heard her mutter curses and the word registration, but she brushed it off when the professor spoke to them again.

"Your room is in the top left tower, room 673." the professor told them and walked away muttering something but this time Sakura and Hinata couldn't hear what she'd said. They stared at each other and then the back of the professor who turned a corner up ahead so they couldn't see her anymore. Grabbing her things Sakura grabbed a hold of Hinata's wrist and dragged her where the other students were headed.

"Sakura, it's in the other direction!" Hinata yelped as she collided with Sakura as the pinkette suddenly stopped dead in her tracks, resulting her falling to the ground and Sakura, more confused now than she was before, left standing on her two feet. Sakura turned to look at Hinata, who was now on the floor with her hair all over her face.

The pinkette tried really hard not to laugh. "Ehe, oops?" she let slip out of her mouth before giving her hand to Hinata to help her back to her feet.

"Maybe I follow you now?" Sakura sheepishly uggested and Hinata started leading the way to the right direction.

* * *

Not only was their school magical but it was also HUGE. After what seemed like a forever of walking around, getting lost and asking for help, Hinata and Sakura finally found their way to the top floor. Sakura had taken the lead again since she felt like Hinata was walking way too slow.

"Come on Hinata! We must be close." Sakura yelled over her shoulder and kept going forward. Hinata sighed and increased her pace to keep up with her.

"Sakura, wait for me!"She yelled when Sakura disappeared behind a corner. Sakura was practically running, it wasn't her fault that her moderate pace of walking was too slow for Sakura.

"You don't even know where to go!" Hinata yelled when she actually had to start running to keep up with her and after turning behind one corner yet again she felt herself run into something. Or in this case, into someone.

"Hinata, why would you do that?! Again!" Sakura yelped from under her. Hinata had ran into her when she'd stopped to take a breath. Hinata wailed an 'oww' and started moving her limbs from the pile of body parts.

"Hey don't blame me, you were the one who was running!" Hinata exclaimed throwing her hands into the air. Sakura just looked at her.

"I was running?" she asked, clearly confused, which got Hinata even more confused.

"You didn't realize? You were basically sprinting from a corridor to another."

"Oh." the pinkette answered, she seemed slightly calmer. Hinata grumbled as they got up and observed where they were. Just another exactly the same looking corridor.

"Why are you so eager to find our room?"

Sakura thought about her answer for a while. She lifted her hand up to the vicinity of her collarbones and pulled out a necklace from inside her shirt. On the silvery chain of the necklace, there was a pendant. A blue crystal, which Sakura held in her fingers and showed to Hinata. Hinata's eyes were fixed on the glowing jewel. Why did she feel like she'd seen this necklace before? The pendant was shaped like a teardrop with the crystal attached to it with delicate silvery swirls almost hugging the blue crystal.

"This was my grandma's." Sakura showed the necklace to Hinata. It had a slight glow to it and it radiated energy that Sakura felt familiar and comforting. "She gave it to me when I was little. She used to tell me about witches and magic, and how magic made people happy and helped people." Sakura's voice wasn't chirpy or energetic. Her eyes were staring at her necklace. Her voice was low and silent and Hinata wasn't sure if she'd hit a soft spot for Sakura.

The pinkette suddenly raised her glance from the necklace to Hinata and plopped it back down under her shirt. "I wan't to become a witch to help people, it's my dream. I want to be able to make a difference. I want to become the greatest witch there has ever been and make the world a better place. " Sakura told Hinata with determination oozing from her voice. Hinata stood beside her quietly, not sure if she should move.

"That's a great dream, I hope you achieve it." Hinata whispered after a while of plain quietness. Sakura let out a sniffle and the turned to Hinata.

"Thanks. I will, but I'd have to get to my room first! Classes start tomorrow." The pinkette confidently exclaimed, only realizing afterwards that Hinata already knew this. Hinata placed her hand hands on her hips and let out a small sigh, a soft smile grazing her lips.

"I think I saw a staircase somewhere over there." Hinata said, non-chalantly ponting to somewhere behind her. Sakura's eyes widened and smile grew bigger. Her emerald irises sparkling she grabbed Hinata's wrist and dashed to where Hinata had pointed.

* * *

They finally found their way to the wide corridor their room was supposed to be in. They'd made their way all the way to the top of the tower, but there the rooms were much more far apart than in the lower floors of the academia. The corridor was wider than most, but it was also shorter. There were only maybe 3 or 4 rooms in the whole tower which Sakura found to be odd. Were they being sent up to the attic or something? Was this because she wasn't exactly 'magical' as she'd put it. Sakura stared at the numbers on the dark wooden twin doors that were a good 10 meters apart from another, maybe even more.

"Uhm, Hinata. What was our room number?" Sakura carefully asked her blue-haired friend because she hadn't really been paying much attention to the teacher when she'd told them. Her question got Hinata really quiet, her eyes widening.

"I don't remember."

Sakura slapped her forehead with the palm of her hand. How could've they forgotten the only important thing they were supposed to remember. It must've started with a six, since all of the rooms' numbers started with a six, but that was pretty much all they knew at this point. Both of the girls started walking slowly along the corridor. They couldn't just stand there, could they?

Hinata realized something. "Hey Sakura, what about our roommates? Maybe we could find out our room that way! I think they were Ino Yamanaka and-"

" _TENTEN!"_ an angry and LOUD voice filled the corridor that basically scared the shit out of the blue and pink haired innocent bystanders, who just happened to be there. Suddenly one room's twin doors swung open and a girl flew out of the room, hitting the wall right on the opposite side of the corridor and sliding to the floor. An angry looking blonde girl walked in front of the collapsed girl.

"I think those are them." Sakura said pointing to the two, which caught their attention, causing both the girls to look at them. Sakura let out a dry cough to break the awkward silence that had fallen to the corridor. Either nobody else was in their rooms or they were way to scared to peek to the corridor.

"Hinata?" The brown-haired one carefully asked when getting up from the floor, fixing her hair that was neatly on two buns on the top of her head. Her words caused the other girl to really stare at them, before her face turning from angry and annoyed to smiling and happy.

"Hinata!" the blonde girl suddenly exclaimed and charged into a sprint towards the two girls.

"God, it's been such a long time!" she said as she almost threw herself on Hinata, crushing her into a hug, which only got Sakura even more confused. Who were these people and how did Hinata know them?

"Uhh.." Sakura let out when the blonde girl and Hinata parted from their hug, which caused the blonde girl to turn her head to the pinkette.

"Who's your new friend?" the brunette girl, who was apparently named Tenten, asked as she walked over to them. Hinata turned her eyes to Sakura and smiled.

"This is Sakura, I met her today before the ceremony." she introduced Sakura to her friends who were now closely examining her from head to toe.

"Wait, you know them?" Sakura exclaimed and pointed to the two that were now looking at the pink-hared girl with confusion.

"Yes, we've been friends since we were children. Our families are acquainted." The blonde girl spoke, before Hinata could even open her mouth and lowered Sakura's finger that was pointed towards them. Sakura finally got a good look at her. She had long blonde hair tied up to a high ponytail, almost flawless complexion and bright blue eyes.

"I'm Ino Yamanaka, just call me Ino. Any friend of Hinata's is my friend also, even if they don't dress well." Ino flipped her blonde hair over her shoulder and straightened out Sakura's light-grey t-shirt's sleeve.

"I'm Sakur- Wait, WHAT DO YOU MEAN I DON'T DRESS WELL?" Sakura yelled angrily but Ino wasn't shaken by it. She just sighed and grabbed Sakura's hand, pulling her towards the open room doors.

"Here we go again." A sight escaped Tenten's lips. She brought her hands behind her neck, stretching out her shoulders and back. "At least she's as loud as Ino, now they can scream at each other instead of taking everything out on me."

"Wait wha- Where are you taking me?" Sakura screamed as Ino dragged her through the twin doors into their room. Well, it wasn't actually just a room, it was more like a suite. They were standing in what seemed to be a living room. It had large windows reaching from the floor to the ceiling that showed a beautiful view over the school grounds and into the forest that surrounded it. The walls were lined with tall bookshelves filled with hundreds- maybe thousands of books. Sakura knew in that moment that she was totally going to read every single one of them. Good thing she liked books. There were three dark-purple coloured couches located by the window, neatly set in a rectangle, but instead of a fourth sofa the rectangle was finished with a fireplace. Where there weren't bookshelves, there were paintings of people Sakura didn't recognize. One of the paintings was a portrait of a young woman, holding a silvery wand - different from the wands at Luna Nova. Her hair was pink like Sakura's but her hair was shiny and silky, reaching her lower back when Sakura's only grazed her shoulders. She was completely in awe of this person but forced herself to look somewhere else so she wouldn't just be standing there staring at a painting.

 _'She must be a professor or an old student..' Sakura thought to herself._

Sakura turned back to Ino, except that the blonde was now nowhere to be seen. The pinkette didn't even realize that Ino had let go of her wrist after they'd entered, she was in awe of everything and was taking in more information than she could probably handle. Ino was now in another room and Hinata and Tenten walked in, closing the room doors behind them. Sakura turned to face them instead.

"This", Sakura pointed all over with her hands swishing in the air, "is our room?!" Sakura was clearly confused. Was she in the wrong room? She expected her room to have maybe a table, a closet and a bed – not a library and a fireplace. Hinata and Tenten turned t each other, exchanging looks and nodded to each other without speaking a word to one another.

With that, Tenten started to explain, walking behind Sakura. "The rooms in the towers are for special students, students who come from noble families. Luna Nova academy appreciates blue-blooded people, even though in the modern world it doesn't have much to do with anything. We're just given bigger rooms, no biggie." Tenten explained and came to a stop after walking a full circle around Sakura. "Shouldn't you know this?"

Sakura turned to face Tenten, Hinata tried wave her to shush but it was too late.

"But, I don't come from a noble family." Sakura frowned, Hinata bringing her hand on her forehead. Sakura's volume went down, she was almost whispering. "Should I go and inform the teachers that I've been assigned to the wrong room?"

Sakura was slightly saddened by the fact that she most likely would be separated from the only people she was acquainted with. Sure, she'd only known Hinata for a couple of hours and the other two girls for maybe 15 minutes, but that was already something. Considering the response of the girls out on the courtyard where the portal had thrown her, she wasn't exactly certain she'd fit in with not coming from a family of witches and wizards and all that.

Ino rushed in with a bunch of clothes in both of her hands and over her shoulders but dropped all of them on to the floor after seeing that the conversation was turning a little low-spirited.

"What's going on?" Ino asked carefully after seeing Sakura saddened, only staring at the tips of her shoes. Hinata sighed, they'd have to sort this out now, even though it was kind of embarrasing for Sakura.

"Sakura comes from a non-magical family and isn't noble." Hinata said bluntly and looked at Sakura apologetically, who was currently staring at her black booties, hands behind her back.

Ino's piercing blue eyes shifted from Hinata to Sakura.

"But that's impossible."

All three turned to face Ino who clearly knew something they didn't.

"If she didn't have magic in her blood, she wouldn't have been able to enter the school's premises, so she does come from a magical bloodline. Maybe she just doesn't know it yet. Also the rooms and roommates are assigned with a special spell that's been used for hundreds of years, there's no way there's a mistake here." Ino told them, placing her hand on Sakura's shoulder, who lifted her eyes from the ground to Ino. She was clearly confused and sad about all of this, not knowing whether or not the only people she'd acquainted so far were even going to be her roommates.

"You belong here, with us." Ino spoke softly so Sakura, who was now quiet. Ino's face was compassionate. She was smiling to Sakura and she wanted to comfort the girl even though she didn't exactly _know_ her.

"So she has a relative that comes from a magical bloodline AND is a noble." Tenten finally said breaking the silence that had fallen, just making sure she'd understood correctly. "No biggie, except that we basically have no idea who she really is."

Hinata turned to the bookshelves and started looking for something specific. She had three pairs of eyes stuck to her back examining her and her actions, but she just kept going. Soon a contented smile decorated her light-pink lips as she found what she had been looking for.

"There!" she exclaimed as she pointed to a specific section in one of their bookshelves. Hinata had to jump to get a grip from the book she had been looking for and caught it in her hands as it fell down. She ran her hand on the velvety surface of the old book and traced the golden swirls that decorated the cover.

"We have books of all the noble magical families, we can do some research and find out who is Sakura's mystery relative. Also the school's library should have some more information." Hinata said triumphantly and gave the book to Sakura to hold. Sakura slid her fingers on the rough edges of the book. She was intrigued by finding out who was the relative that came from a magical bloodline. She didn't care about the noble part, she wasn't interested in power or special treatment. She came here to learn, but learning about herself was just an added bonus. Sakura pressed the book firmly against her chest, hugging it.

"Would you guys be willing to help me?" Sakura sheepishly asked and was met with a tight group hug which she interpreted as a yes. Sakura felt like she'd finally found a place where she belonged.

"And now, a makeover!" Ino yelled out of the blue, pulling Sakura to sit on one of the sofas. She started looking through the pile of clothes she'd dropped before, throwing clothes everywhere and muttering something none of the girls were able to understand. Tenten and Hinata laughed and sat down on the sofas with Sakura, keeping her company as Ino fussed around. They both chose to sit down on the same sofa, the one left of Sakura. Ino came back from a room, which Sakura expected to be her bedroom, and positioned herself behind Sakura. She pulled the pinkette's shoulders back slightly and started brushing through her pink locks. Sakura enjoyed having her hair brushed so she didn't mind Ino doing whatever.

"Is this your natural haircolour? Because if it isn't, your hair stylist did an excellent job colouring it." Ino suddenly blurted out to which she received two panicked looks from Hinata and Tenten, who were concerned that the blonde's bluntness would offend their new roommate. Surprisingly, Sakura didn't find it offensive at all. A laugh escaped her lips, she got the question quite often.

"Yeah, it's a family thing from my mom's side."

"So, our introductions were a little short but I'm Tenten. I don't use my last name because I don't want people to care more about my family than me." She smirked and lifted her feet onto the mahogany coffee table that was neatly placed between the sofas.

"I'm Sakura Haruno, just call me Sakura. Nice to meet you." the pinkette happily answered, still holding onto the book Hinata had previously given her. Ino had stopped brushing her hair and was now digging through the pile of her clothes she'd dropped onto the floor before with random clothing items being thrown around the room.

"There are no school uniforms so we have to make you extra chic for tomorrow's lessons!" Ino said and dropped a bunch of clothes into Sakura's lap. Sakura placed the book on the coffee table and eyed on the clothes Ino had just given her.

"But these are your clothes?" Sakura held the clothes in their hands, questioning Ino's decision of giving them to her. They were all very expensive looking, there was no way she was just giving them to her.

"Meh, I have a bunch of clothes just like those in multiple different colours. I don't mind, but let's just say that you're borrowing them if it makes you feel better." Ino said, pushing the clothes to her. She clearly knew a lot about fashion, since her outfit looked like it was straight from a runway. Sakura then placed her hands on the pile of clothes, she didn't bring enough clothes anyway since she thought that they were going to have school uniforms.

"TRUST me Sakura, she has enough clothes to fill up a mansion. I think she has a house full of closets just for clothes. And don't even get me started on the shoes!" Tenten exclaimed and Ino just stuck her tongue out to the brunette.

"Fine, I'll just room with pinky then. You share a room with Hinata." Ino told Tenten and jumped over the sofa and sat beside Sakura. "Don't worry, I already put a spell on our closet. Now it has all the room in the world for clothes." Ino squealed and Sakura let out a little laugh. This was going to be a start of a beautiful friendship.

* * *

❧ Goddess of Glam


	3. Chapter 3

Sakura woke up to Ino fussing around in their shared bedroom. The sun was peeking through their deep maroon curtains that were slightly apart so that Ino could see where she was going before turning the lights on. She had some decency in her and didn't turn the lights on, giving her roommate a chance to sleep a little longer.

Ino was clearly looking for something, checking out every single drawer in their room, closet, bathroom, under their beds and even under their carpet. Sakura just couldn't go back to sleep even though she really tried to. Her mind was awake now, so she yawned and sat up on her bed, rubbing her eyes and stretching before actually getting up on her feet. Ino let out a sigh of relief when she found something that looked like an ordinary jewelry box.

"You had to make so much noise to find that LITTLE box?" Sakura exclaimed, clearly upset for not being able to sleep as long as she could've. She huffed and got out of bed, her toes curling against the soft carpet of their room, rushing to the bathroom she started her normal morning routine. Sakura then proceeded to brush her teeth and wash her face – she wasn't a big fan of showers in the morning.

Ino was leaning against the big mirror they had in their room when she stepped back into their bedroom from the bathroom, still drying her face with a white towel. Sakura watched Ino as she curled her lashes – she made funny faces when she did her makeup. Sakura couldn't help but laugh, but she also made those funny faces – especially when putting on mascara and eyeliner. She started brushing her hair when Ino finished her makeup, dousing herself in setting spray. A smile spread to Sakura's lips when the scent of Ino's makeup setting spray reached her. Sakura took a deep breath of the lavender smelling air. The scent really suited Ino.

"Can I do your makeup, Sakura?" Ino asked her right when she was pulling out her makeup from her mostly unpacked bag. Sakura had never been artistic, but doing her makeup was artistic enough for her – even though on most days her makeup was very simple. Ino had already picked out clothes for Sakura before they went to bed and now she wanted to do Sakura's makeup – the girl really had an obsession with fashion and beauty. Or with Sakura's looks, but that was a different thing.

"Sure!" Sakura answered and finished brushing her hair. She changed from her pajamas to the clothes Ino had given her and twirled in front of a mirror. She had put on a black skater skirt and a white sleeveless crop top with little triangle cuts on both sides. Ino did good. Sakura hadn't taken off her necklace, she only took it off when showering or swimming or such, but never when she slept or throughout the day. Sakura felt like the necklace was a part of her. She rarely wore it on top of her clothes, since her normal clothes were a little more baggier but since her shirt was now hugging her body, Sakura settled with just having it out in the sun.

After finishing doing Sakura's makeup Ino could hear a gasp from behind her. A smirk grazed her lips when she put the last finishing touches on Sakura and turned around to face a speechless Hinata. Sakura opened her eyes finally after what had seemed like a forever, since Ino had told her to close her eyes and everytime she tried to open them Ino yelled her not to.

"Sakura, you look amazing!" Hinata softly spoke, urging her to look at herself in the mirror. Sakura was sitting on her bed as Ino worked her magic and stood up, staring at herself in the mirror. She didn't know what to say, she looked so different – but she liked it. She brought her hands to her hair and brushed her fingers through the silky pink locks. Ino had given her a brown smokey eye with a pop of gold pigment in the center of the lid, winged liner so sharp it could kill a man and fake eyelashes that complimented her eyeshape. Her complexion was radiant, Ino had done a little highighting and contouring and added a pinky blush, mimicking her hair colour. She didn't have any lipstick on since her lips were naturally plump and a beautiful rose colour, Ino felt like she didn't need any – and she was right.

"Damn Sakura, you go girl." Tenten said walking into the room. She and Hinata were both ready and ready to go to breakfast downstairs. Ino sprayed so perfume on herself and walked out of their bedroom, Sakura following closely behind. Sakura had snatched her favorite pair of shoes – her black leather litas – from their infinite closet before leaving. She always felt confident walking in them since she was insecure about not being supermodel tall like Ino. Ino on the other hand was almost jealous of Sakura since she was taller than Sakura so she didn't believe heels suited her as much.

"Sakura I'm so jealous how well heels fit you." Ino whined as they all walked out of their room in to the corridor. She herself was wearing highwaisted blue jeans and and dark purple cropped boxy hoodie with ballerina flats. Sakura just turned to her in disbelief.

"Ino, you could wear ANYTHING and it would suit you. Your legs are long already, sure, but I can imagine you rocking some high heels in the near future." Sakura told Ino and winked at her. Hinata nodded in agreement, she also felt like Ino could look good in anything. It had always been that way, even as a small girl Ino had been very well dressed.

"Guys let's not talk about clothes, pleasee." Tenten spoke out, interrupting their conversation. Ino looked slightly offended, but Hinata just patted her back and Ino huffed, crossing her arms over her chest.

"Well what _should_ we talk about then?"

"Well I don't know, food?" Tenten suggested, resting her arms behind her neck as they neared the school's dining hall.

"Oh yes I'm starving!" Sakura laughed out and all three agreed with her. There was no dinner served the day before so this was their first meal in a while.

"I could eat a cow. And I will if I can!" Tenten announced proudly which made the other three girls laugh wholeheartedly. Sakura smiled as they entered the dining hall, she'd truly found her group of friends. They were all so nice and understanding of her background that she didn't feel like she didn't belong in their world at all. They made her feel like she was a part of it.

And was now in this amazing school, getting closer to her dream of becoming the greatest witch every day. She'd also discovered that there was a secret witch or wizard in her family that she didn't know about. And yesterday she was worried about losing a map. Oh how the tables had turned.

The dining hall was a huge rectangle shaped room with large windows on both sides of the hall. The ceiling was very high up and two gigantic chandeliers were hanging from it, creating little rainbows all over the light coloured walls when sunrays hit the thousands of little crystals that were dangling from them.

Sakura felt a whiff of air on her face as she focused her gaze on Ino, who'd just slammed her hands together right in front of her face and looked pretty pissed off.

"What the hell Sakura, you dozed off! Hinata and Tenten are already grabbing something to eat." Sakura heard Ino but she was still pretty out of it. Her emerald eyes bounced all over the room, at the students' tables and one long one a bit farther away meant for teachers.

"You're impossible, forehead." Ino grunted and grabbed Sakura's hand, pulling her towards a long table with a white tablecloth that had lots of different kinds of foods to eat. Considering that Luna Nova got students from all around the world it was probably the best to offer everyone atleast something they felt comfortable eating. Unlike the teachers' table that could probably fit all 20 or so professor, the students' tables were small. One table was neatly set for four students.

Sakura felt a sharp pain on her forehead that finally brought her back to reality. Ino was in front of her, holding a spoon in her hand and had a really annoyed face.

"Did you just hit me with a spoon?" Sakura asked and muttered an 'oww' when rubbing the spot that Ino had just hit with her palm.

"Yup, you deserved it. But now you're awake and making people wait so could you please just grab a plate and move." Ino told her which caused Sakura to look behind her. She'd created a line of people behind her so she quickly followed Ino.

She grabbed a deep bowl for herself and a fork. Ino started building a salad for herself and Tenten was already heading for a table. Sakura had a moment of embarrassment when picking up strawberries and rasberries to her bowl, how could've she just zoned out completely in the middle of the dining hall. She grabbed some watermelon, mango and kiwis to her bowl and headed after her friends.

Tenten, Hinata and Ino had already sat down to a table next to one of the tall windows that brought natural light into the dining hall. Sakura couldn't see them at first but Tenten waved at her and caught her attention. Sakura smiled and waved back so that they knew she'd seen them. Sakura felt like a model walking in her new outfit, looking more beautiful than ever. She could hear some whispers around her when she walked past some students.

" _Who is she?"_

" _Is she new?"_

Sakura knew they were whispering about her but acted like she didn't notice. She just kept walking over to her friends until she noticed a specific girl looking at her. It wasn't just a glance, she was staring. She had red hair and glasses. Sakura could feel her glare at her back when walking past her and sitting down with her friends.

"Sakura, why did you totally zone out back there?" Tenten mumbled while stuffing more eggs and bacon into her mouth when Sakura had settled down in their table.

"Uhh, I don't know. I got this really funny feeling and all the background noise kind of disappeared and I was in my thoughts." Sakura told her and picked up a strawberry with her fork. Ino was munching on her salad and Hinata was eating blueberry yogurt with granola and berries. Sakura was seriously jealous of Hinata's bowl of yougurt. It looked delicious.

"But are you alright now?" Hinata asked, clearly concerned but Sakura just smiled at her.

"Don't worry, I'm fine." Sakura told Hinata so that she could continue eating her yogurt without having to worry about her. Sakura was also feeling better, maybe she was just so blown away by everything that she'd zoned out. Suddenly she could see the red haired girl leave with her friends, still glaring at her.

"Umm guys, who is that redhead over there?" Sakura leaned in and asked her friends trying to point out the girl when they were walking out of the dining hall without being too obvious. They all looked at her but Tenten made a sound like she was going to barf.

"Is that who I think it is?" Tenten spat out like a bad piece of fruit. Ino had that same disgusted look on her face as she nodded to Tenten, but now Sakura was as confused as ever.

"Hey guys! Who the hell is she?" Sakura repeated the question with more aggression this time, drawing her friends' attention back to her. She really didn't like to be out of the loop. Hinata didn't seem too bothered so Sakura gave her a stern look that Hinata clearly didn't like.

"U-uh that's Karin." Hinata answered quickly after noticing Sakura's stern gaze on her.

"You mean ugly Karin." Ino corrected her.

"Bitchy Karin." Tenten added.

Okay so now Sakura knew that her friends didn't like her, but who was she and why was she giving her all these nasty looks.

"But who is she and why was she glaring at me?" Sakura asked and stuffed a raspberry in her mouth. Ino clearly looked like she had some beef with Karin but the pinkette chose not to ask.

"Well Karin has always thought of herself as the smartest, most popular and most beautiful girl in this school. Her family is super rich so she doesn't have to even ask and she gets everything she wants. Honestly I just think she has something permanently stuck up her ass so that her face looks like that all the time." Ino gave Sakura half of the answer she wanted. So she was a stuck up brat but what did she want with Sakura, she didn't even know the damn girl.

"But why was she giving me all those nasty looks?" Sakura wasn't even eating, just pushing the berries and fruits around in her bowl.

"Well maybe cause you're the new girl and obviously gorgeus so everyone's attention is focused on you and not her for a change." Tenten replied and wiped her mouth after finishing her entire plate.

"And let's keep it that way. Anything to make the bitch squirm." Ino clearly hated Karin. Sakura looked at Ino with a questioning face but didn't want to ask since she could've burst into full destruction mode like Sakura did when she got mad.

"Karin has annoyed Ino forever, Ino has always been prettier so Karin just made it her life mission to ruin Ino's life." Tenten explained. "Obviously she didn't succeed but now we have to look at her ugly face around here. But trust me, she's psycho and stay away from her. If I'm correct, her room should be in a tower completely on the other side of the academy so we most likely don't have to put up with her psychotic narcissism." She continued and wiggled on her seat, ready to leave. Sakura munched the last few berries and a piece of watermelon before placing her fork down.

"Well I'm done." Ino informed, neatly placing her fork and knife down on her empty plate. Hinata was also finished so they all got up together and made their way out of the dining hall.

"What's out first class?" Hinata asked when they started walking towards the classrooms. They hadn't gotten their books yet so there wasn't any reason for them to head back to their room.

"History of magic, I think?" It was a more of a question from Tenten than a definite answer, but they didn't know any better so they headed for their classroom.

Sakura was overly excited, but she tried her best to keep it cool. Her heart was racing and her smile getting bigger when they got closer to the classroom, their first class. Her first class in Luna Nova academy, in this magical castle like paradise for girls who wanted to study magic. And she did, more than anyone.

* * *

"What was that nonsense?" Sakura whined when they walked out of their classroom. Their whole class was about their clearly near-sighted teacher trying to read the fine text of their textbooks. She was buried in books the whole time and Sakura didn't hear anything she was explaining to them. Their subject didn't even have anything to do with magic or witches. The pinkette was overall very disappointed. Hinata had comforted her and told her that they wouldn't start studying anything important until the next lesson so that she would calm down.

The only thing Sakura had understood, or heard to be exact, was that there was going to be a special announcement for which they would have to go to straight to the auditorium and that the second class of the day would either start later or be cancelled all together depending on how long the announcement would take. Hinata knew that their next class would be broom flying, which made the pink haired witch grunt out of disappointment. She was so excited for flying and not she was going to miss her first flying class?! Just her luck. Huffing and puffing with her arms crossed over her chest Sakura and her friends entered the auditorium.

Sakura let all her friends go sit before her so that she was sitting in the last seat of their row, next to the stairs. They weren't sitting that high up, somewhere in the middle of the auditorium. The pinkette, as impatient as ever, couldn't wait for something to happen and counted that they were maybe on the sixth or seventh row. She brushed her pink hair away from her face with her fingers when she watched the auditorium slowly start to fill up with students. She knew the longer the whole thing lasted, the more time it would be off of her first flying class. Even when the auditorium doors closed, nothing happened.

 _'What's taking so long?' Sakura anxiously thought to herself._

Her sour expression was instantly wiped away when she saw the headmistress walk in front of the students, who were now all sitting down quietly in their seats waiting to hear what was the special announcement that they were all called to the auditorium for.

"You're probably all wondering why I've told your teachers to send you here." The headmistress calmly started, her eyes wandering in the crowd of students. Her voice was as strong as it had been the day before but it was also so gentle that Sakura felt like she could've wrapped herself in it. But she truly was right, nobody knew why they were all asked to come here. A few students nodded their heads as the headmistress continued.

"I have two announcements for you. I have been a headmistress at Luna Nova for quite some time now, but only now for the first time in my life time I feel us moving into a new era of magic. I sense power that hasn't roamed the earth in a long time. I sense rare magic that has awakened, which brings me to my first announcement."

The pinkette was in absolute awe of the blonde headmistress. Everything about her; her poise, her looks, her voice, was just captivating and drawing the attention of the young witch to her. She felt herself lean forwards from her seat just to get a little bit closer to the leader of her new school.

"For these new, exciting times I have chosen to pick one of you, who I will guide and mentor throughout their time in Luna Nova." Sakura didn't think there was anything weird going on until she heard gasps around the room. When she turned to her friends, even they seemed to be dazzled by the headmistress' words.

"Why is everyone so shocked?" Sakura whispered to Ino who was sitting next to her. It didn't seem odd for her to take someone under her wing, it showed a caring side to the blonde woman that she hadn't even seen before.

"The headmistress hasn't chosen a witch to mentor ever before in Luna Nova history. Only the professors take mentees when they feel like it's required, but the headmistress has _never_ taken a mentee before." Ino explained, obviously baffled about the whole situation. Hinata was speechless and just staring at the headmistress in shock. Tenten was the quickest to recover from the news and gently pushed Hinata's open mouth closed by gently lifting her jaw with her hand.

"Yeah, lucky girl who gets her as a mentor. She's one of the most powerful sorcerers in the world." Tenten gasped to Sakura, who was slowly understanding why everyone was so surprised and excited. "She specializes in healing magic, and I've heard that there hasn't ever been a better healer before her. So this is a big deal."

The bun-haired girl's words made Sakura's emerald eyes twinkle. She couldn't believe what she'd just heard. There was a healing magic expert in the same building, in the same room as her. Her heart fluttered as she sighed of joy, sinking down to her seat. Haling magic was the one thing she had been passionate about learning before coming to Luna Nova and she'd forgotten all about missing her next class.

Sakura's head popped up when heard the mass of students whisper even louder than before. A brunette professor was carrying a large, hollow glass ball over to the headmistress across the front of the auditorium. It was atleast a meter in diameter and the professor seemed to have hard time holding it up. The pinkette could clearly see it slipping from her hands. The headmistress quickly whipped out her wand and mumbled something before pointing at the ball which easily floated out of the protective hands of the professor previously carrying it. Now Sakura could see the ball clearly. It was filled with small pieces of paper being blown around in the glass ball like there was a strong gust of wind mixing them around.

"Ugh, for all we know she's gonna pull out Karin's name and she'll again think that she's the greatest and whatever – blah!" Ino growled, arms crossed over her chest. Sakura didn't really pay attention to Ino, she was way too intrigued by what was going on in front of her.

"This sphere contains every single one of your names written on a paper slip." The headmistress explained, gently brushing her fingertips against the smooth glass. "The name I pull out will determine who I will mentor in the future. Some of you will think that this is based purely on luck, and you might be correct. But I, on the other hand, believe in destiny and trust that the person that is destined for me is destined for greatness."

The headmistress then reached her hand to the glass sphere and pushed her hand through it's glass surface like it was air, right into the crazy papertornado. Her hand hovered inside for a few seconds. Sakura couldn't see her face but she guessed that she searched for the right one to pick. If it really was destiny, there was only one that she was going to pick. Suddenly she pulled out a name and opened up the small piece of paper that was thin and folded in half. Everyone was excited for what was coming. Everyone wanted it to be their name on that exact slip of paper that the headmistress was holding in her hand. The room was completely silent, filled up with anticipation. Sakura could see a few girls that were sitting in front of her, biting their fingernails because they were so anxious to hear the result.

Suddenly a paperball hit Ino in the head. All four turned their gaze up a few rows where a familiar looking redhead was sitting with her friends, a smug smirk was visible on her face. Ino glared at the snickering Karin. The blonde looked like she was about to fly out of her seat to rip Karin's head off and grind the rest of her body to small specks of dust.

"Don't even think about it Yamanaka, it's going to be me, I know it. There's no way any of you losers would be destined for greatness. I'm the greatest and I always get everything that I wa-" Karin was interrupted by the headmistress' announcement.

" _Sakura Haruno!"_

It took everyone a few seconds to process what had just happened, a few seconds longer for the pinkette. Sakura heard her name and turned around to look at the headmistress who had just called out her name to the whole school. All of her friends turned to look at her, eyes wide and mouths open.

This wasn't happening. She must've heard wrong. There must have been a mistake. Sakura felt her heart rate speed up as she thought the whole scenario through. Why her? There was nothing special about her.

"Please Sakura, come on down here." The headmistress' voice was soft when she called her. Sakura wasn't sure if she wanted to move, she had never been good in front of crowds. She still hesitated whether or not there was a mistake and that she should just not move at all. All her muscles were tense and she was digging her nails into her chair. Everyone was looking for someone to stand up and silent whispers filled the auditorium.

"Ugh and who's that bitch?" she heard Karin's loud, annoying voice whine call out and something twitched inside of the pinkette. She suddenly got up more determined than ever, confidence oozing from her as she turned her head to face Karin.

"Me." She spoke directly to the redhead and turned around, walking down the steps that lined the auditorium. Everyone's eyes were now following the pinkette who walked down the marble steps and over to the headmistress. Sakura didn't care about any of them, all she cared about now was the inviting smile her headmistress was greeting her with.

"Hello Sakura." She spoke out to her, smiling. Sakura shyly smiled back, debating whether she was dreaming or not.

"Hello headmistress, thank you for this honor." She politely thanked her new mentor.

"Just call me Tsunade." the headmistress told her and winked. Sakura quickly nodded in response and Tsunade pulled her to stand next to her. She was holding her hand protectively on Sakura's shoulder as she turned away from Sakura, now facing the students. Sakura had never seen the auditorium this way. There were rows behind rows behind rows all filled with students who were now looking directly at her. She could feel the envy and the disappointment, but for some reason none of that bothered her. As if she was in her own protective bubble that shielded her from negative thoughts and emotions.

"I present to all of you my mentee, Sakura." Tsunade paused for a second as everyone observed Sakura from head to toe. Good thing Ino had picked her outfit and did her makeup, she looked amazing. She heard silent whispers fill the auditorium in the short time Tsunade decided to pause her speech.

" _Who is she?"_

" _She's so beautiful!"_

" _So lucky!"_

" _I wouldn't want to be Karin right now."_

Her pause wasn't longer than a few seconds but to Sakura it felt longer than that. It was like an eternity for everyone to just stare, inspect and judge her.

"And that leads me to my second announcement. We will be having visitors from another school in our academy. An accident has occurred in a school with close relations to ours. They have to evacuate all of their students and I have offered our help. They will live and study here until further notice. Our visitors will arrive tomorrow and we will be hosting a welcoming ball in their honor. I trust my new mentee, Sakura, with the great honor of welcoming them and organizing a group of students to decorate our ballroom for the ball tomorrow night. I expect everyone to be on their best behavior and welcome our visitors with open arms. You are all now dismissed and all classes are cancelled fr today. " Tsunade ended her speech and walked away from the spotlight to the side of the room when everyone started to leave the auditorium. Sakura could hear the joy Tsunade's announcement caused as everyone would have the rest of the day off.

Sakura wasn't sure what to feel. She'd just been chosen as the first mentee of the headmistress of Luna Nova academy _ever_ and introduced to every single student as the special girl who gets to be the headmistress' mentee. Also she'd just stood in front of all of the students without even remembering that she has stage fright and gotten a mentor who specializes in the area of magic she wanted to learn more than anything.

 _'This has to be a dream.' Sakura thought to herself as she couldn't bring herself to believing that any of the things going on around her were real._

Tsunade noticed Sakura's dazed state and placed her hands on the pinkette's shoulders and smiled at her. She let out a silent gasp when her eyes spotted the pendant dangling from her newly announced mentee's neck.

 _'Could it be..' Tsunade thought to herself before returning to the moment she was in. She'd have to have a talk with Sakura._

"You'll do great. Come visit me later so that we can talk more about tomorrow, your friends must to be waiting." Tsunade spoke softly, trying to reassure Sakura. She understood the emotions that the pinkette was going through.

Sakura nodded and smiled to her mentor in return. With an encouraging look from her Sakura finally turned to walk away and hurried back to her friends who were now standing not too far away from her. Sakura rubbed the back of her neck as she quickly walked across the auditorium, not really looking anyone in the eye and staring at the slender tips of her shoes.

"Oh my god, Sakura!" Ino squealed as the pinkette finally reached them, tightly wrapping her in a hug. Hinata and Tenten joined in and turned the simple hug into a massive group hug that squeezed the life out of the pinkette in the middle.

"Ca-n't bre-at-he!" She breathed out with the last bit of air she had in her lungs. All three unraveled from around her and watched her as she took a few well-deserved breaths in.

"I can't believe you're headmistress' mentee!" Tenten exclaimed and patted Sakura on the back a few times.

"Yeah, that's amazing." Hinata agreed.

"Oh my god you should've seen Karin's face! She was _furious_!" Ino rejoiced. She was clearly happy for Sakura but pissing off Karin made everything perfect.

"And did you hear everyone talk about you? You looked amazing down there with the headmistress!" Tenten continued to praise her.

"Ah, isn't this a great day." Ino sighed happily and started to dance a little. She got maybe a little too happy when Sakura shut Karin up totally.

"Um, Sakura. What was all that talk about the other school and the ball?" Hinata interrupted Ino's dance of joy that caught Sakura's attention too.

"Uhh, I don't know. She told me to visit her later but I'm not sure what will happen now." Sakura turned her gaze back to her shoes. It was a bad habit of her when she got nervous or out of her comfort zone – to stare at her shoes and not make eye contact.

A silence fell between the four girls.

"Well, do you want help?" Tenten carefully suggested, grabbing Hinata and Ino in her arms and holding their heads right next to hers and smiling widely. This caused Sakura to laugh and hug her friends.

"Thanks guys, what would I do without you!" She exclaimed when parting from her friends. "But what are we supposed to welcome them with? And what about the ball? We can't possibly decorate a whole ballroom by ourselves and welcome the students and everything!"

Sakura's three friends smirked and pulled out their identical wands out.

"We just need a little hint of magic." Ino said and winked at Sakura.

"We should probably get back to our room since there are no more classes today. Let's start planning there and after that Sakura can go visit the headmistress." Hinata spoke out.

"Race you to the tower!" Tenten suddenly yelled out and bursted into a sprint out of the now empty auditorium.

"Hey cheater!" Ino screamed and all three ran after their friend who had now an unfair headstart.


	4. Chapter 4

Sakura panted. Her pink hair was all over her face, her heart racing and her lungs were burning. In any other case she would've hated running like this. Sports were never her strong suit but now it was in a different setting - she was dashing around her school's corridors and hallways with her friends, having fun and competing. Sakura could catch a glimpse of her friend's blonde hair in the corner of her eye. Ino was running right along side with her, Hinata was surprisingly fast and running in front of them, which had caught Sakura totally off guard.

The almost empty corridors of their school were filled with lighthearted screams and fits of laugher when the four friends sprinted past a bunch of students and even a few faeries. Faeries were the ones to keep the academy up and running. They were responsible for cleaning and maintenance, doing the laundry and even cooking, in exchange of magical power that the sorcerer's stone provided to the school.

Some students were looking at them weirdly, others in delight to see the pink haired girl run with her friends. There was no doubt that it seemed odd to see the headmistress' newly chosen mentee act this way, nobody usually did. But honestly, Sakura didn't care. All she currently cared about was beating Tenten.

Suddenly their voiced went down when they saw Tenten stop on her tracks. Blankness filled Sakura's mind. What was her friend doing? Tenten's muscles tensed, it was clearly visible for her friends who stopped behind her – now understanding what made Tenten stop.

" _Karin."_

The readhead was standing in the middle of the hallway with an obnoxious smirk splattered all over her face, which just made Sakura wince.

"Do you really have no other life than ruining ours?" Ino sneered. "You're not the number one anymore." She reminded Karin, whose smirk faded into a glare toward the blonde's direction. Ino just formed an 'L' with her thumb and pointer finger, sticking her tongue out. This seemed to really piss Karin off.

"Ugh whatever, I don't care about any of you losers. I'm here to talk to the pink or whatever her name was." Karin responded. Her voice irritated the crap out of Sakura, nobody talked to her friends like that. Sakura stepped in front of Tenten, now facing Karin.

"For the record my name is Sakura. What do you want?" Sakura demanded to know, crossing her arms over her chest.

"I want _you_ to give up your spot as headmistress' mentee and give it to _me_ , obviously." Karin stated like it ws the most obvious thing in the world, smirking at Sakura and her friends. Her words made Sakura let out a cocky, loud laugh, which confused Karin.

"Me? Give the spot to you! Hell no." Sakura laughed and pointed her finger at Karin like she was the most ridiculous thing she'd ever seen. Well, she kind of was. Karin was wearing clothes way too small for her, she probably tried to look hotter that way but Sakura thought it was just plain distasteful.

"Yeah, right!" Ino mocked Karin, seeing the redhead clenching her fists.

"Not so important anymore, are you?" Tenten added, placing her hands on her hips.

"You don't know what you're messing with Haruno!" Karin screamed, annoyed at the whole situation. Sakura just let out a dry laugh at Karin's empty threats, from what Ino had told she was all talk no action.

"You annoy me. Please leave." Sakura didn't even feel like watching her annoying twitch from not getting what she wanted, so she waved her hand in front of her, motioning her to go back where she came from. Inside Sakura was shocked at her newfound confidence, Karin didn't know what to say and just stuttered in front of her, trying to find an insult to throw her way.

"You're just a bunch of empty headed sluts, you took what was rightfully mine!" Karin screamed and pulled out her wand, pointing it at Sakura and her friends. This actually made Sakura take a step back.

'This bitch is insane' Sakura though when Karin was about to attack them. There was no way for them to defend themselves, her friends could've pulled out their wands but by then it would've been too late.

" _Miss Karin!"_

Sakura and all her friends' heads turned to look at the tall woman that had appeared not too far away behind Karin. The readhead gulped when turning around slowly, trying to hide her wand behind her back.

"Pr-professor Shitzune, miss!" Karin stuttered, avoiding her sharp black eyes.

"Finally someone is about to put the bitch in her place.." Ino whispered victoriously.

"This is the third time, in the TWO days you've been here, I catch you running your foul mouth and theatening your fellow students. But this time using _magic_ , this is unacceptable _._ " Shizune's voice was cold and her gaze stern, she looked like she was about to burn a hole through Karin. Sakura glanced at her friends who were not hiding their evident smirks of satisfaction.

"Serves her right." Hinata whispered, earning a small nod from Sakura before Shizune spoke out again.

"And now you can't use your words." Shizune loudly stated, almost mocking Karin who hadn't gotten a single word out of her mouth.

"But professor-" Karin tried to say but Shizune was already interrupting her by raising her hand in front of her face, shutting Karin up completely.

"I don't care what you have to say, you will help the faeries with the laundry for the next three week. Go to the headmistress' office NOW. And if I catch you causing any more trouble to Sakura and her friends, you will suffer consequences."

Shizune shut Karin up completely. She walked over and snatched Karin's wand from her hand, which caused Karin to cry out in protest.

"The headmistress will decide what will happen to you, now go." Shizune motioned Karin to leave and with slight hesitation, she did leave without even glancing at Sakura or her friends. A brief silence fell to the corridor. A couple of students had came out to see what the screaming was about and saw the whole thing. Sakura was standing up to Karin, defending herself – nobody ever stood up to Karin. It was like the new girl was breaking all of the rules.

"What did just happen?" Tenten broke the silence by whispering to her friends.

"Are you all alright?" Shizune walked over to them, obviously concerned for them – Karin was a tough one to handle. Sakura almost didn't recognize her voice since now it was gentle and concerned, unlike a second ago when she'd been yelling to Karin.

"Oh yeah, thank you for interfering." Sakura politely answered, before even realizing that she'd reacted to Shizune's voice and turned to face the smiling professor.

"You're Tsunade's mentee, right?" The question caught Sakura a little off guard.

"Y-yes." She managed to say. Nobody called the headmistress Tsunade. Sakura knew that she'd given her permission to refer to her as Tsunade, but she hadn't heard anyone else calling her that.

"If you need any help, my classroom is in the eastern wing. I should probably leave, you and your friends have a welcoming ball to plan." Shizune told them and with a smile she pulled out her wand and disappeared into a puff of smoke, leaving the girls stare at the spot she'd been standing in, wondering what the hell had just happened.

"I like her." Tenten announced to her friends, earning a few laughs and smiles from them.

"Yeah, she totally shut that bitch up!" Ino exclaimed, hopping around and thrusting her hands up in the air.

"Guys, let's go! We have to come up with a plan fo Sakura to present the headmistress during their meeting!" Hinata told them, resulting in all of them sprinting towards their room.

* * *

"Okay, so what do we need?" Sakura asked her friends, when picking up a notebook and a pen. They'd sat down – well in Tenten's case collapsed – on the three sofas they had in their room. Tenten was laying on her back, waving her wand in the air, shrugging at Sakura's question.

"Focus!" Ino said and smacked Tenten with a pillow, which made the brunette mad.

"Pig!"

"Oh you'll regret that!" Ino shrieked and started to continuously hit Tenten with the pillow. Tenten grabbed a pillow of her own and they started a fight, running around and dodging each other's attacks. Hinata and Sakura let out a tired sigh in unison. Hinata sat down next to Sakura and stared at the empty page of her notebook, not caring about the cries for help and welps behind them.

"Well, we need to have music!" Hinata started and Sakura immediately wrote it down with her very neat handwriting. But how what kind of music, was the ball formal or was it supposed to be fun. Sakura frowned, she really didn't know what to do. Hinata saw her head drop down and let out a heartfelt laugh.

"You do realize it's not a big deal right?"

"But what kind of music? Where do we get a band on such a short notice?!" Sakure cried out in frustration. This caused Hinata to smirk and once again, show Sakura her wand to help her realize that magic would solve all of her problems.

"There's this thing called magic you know. It kind of solves most of your problem." Hinata told her matter-of-factly, pretending like Sakura didn't already know that, which got the pinkette's cheeks red with annoyance.

"I know that, you write everything down then!" Sakura exclaimed and threw the pen and notebook into Hinata's lap, crossing her arms over her chest, puffing her cheeks. Ino and Tenten and finally finished their fight and crawled back to them. Nobody won, they were both beat and panting. They had feathers all over them but atleast now they could focus with all that energy gone.

"Okay so if it's formal, we'll cast a spell on some instruments so they'll play music but we'll see tomorrow how it looks." Hinata said and finished writing all the information down.

"You should ask the headmistress if we can play some less classical music." Ino said, still out of breath from having a fight with Tenten. Her hair was messy and her clothes wrinkled. "Cause if the people from the other school are super boring, we can atleast have fun. Also I wanna dance till the soles of my shoes are completely worn off!"

Sakura nodded to Ino and Hinata wrote a note for her about it in the notebook. Sakura amazed at how good Hinata was at this. She'd made a nice list with the main title being 'prep for ball' and underneath it 'music'. She'd written a nice list of all the things they'd discussed – including that Sakura should ask Tsunade about the music.

"Then decorations!" Ino exclaimed. She was clearly more than excited for being able to dress formal and beautiful for their welcoming party.

"That's actually already taken care of." Hinata told her, earning a confused look from Sakura. "The ballroom is already so magnificent that we don't have to decorate it."

Tenten had been silent for a while but now she jumped up and stood on the couch, pointing her fingr at Sakura and Hinata.

"Well I'll make sure everything is pristine and perfect!" Ino exclaimed and drew out her wand that was identical to Hinata and Tenten's. Everyone seemed to have the exact wand, even Karin. It had actually been bothering Sakura for a little while. She'd thought everyone would have their own kind of wand.

"Hey guys. This has nothing to do with the party, but why are everyone's wands so similar, like, identical?" Sakura spoke out, gaining her friends' attention

"All Luna Nova students and professors have one. They all work because of the sorcerer's stone, there aren't many kinds of wands that work without. I guess it's just easier to hav the same kind of wand for everyone." Ino told her, looking at her weirdly, which made Sakura twitch a little.

"Hence why we all have similar wands. Shouldn't you know that?" Tenten continued, sharing the same puzzled look Ino had.

"Didn't you get one with your acceptance letter?" Hinata asked her, joining the other two and stared at her. Suddenly Sakura regretted asking, she still didn't like having all the attention on her.

"No.." she sheepishly answered, rubbing the hem of her skirt in between her thumbs and pointer fingers. Hinata placed her hand on Sakura's shoulder and rubbed it.

"Hey, you should ask the headmistress! I bet she'll give you your wand." Ino softly spoke, pulling on Tenten's wrist and making her sit down next to her. Sakura looked up and smiled at her friends, they always made her feel better. Tsunade would probably help her and give her a wand. She wouldn't be able to cast any spells before that. Not that she could, yet atleast.

"Wait, do we have dinner tomorrow?" Tenten suddenly realized. That's right, they wouldn't be having dinner tomorrow since the ball would be happening at the exact time they were supposed to eat.

"So we need to serve food." Sakura announced and Hinata again started to write things down. Ino's eyes twinkled as she raised her hand jokingly, earning an amused glance from Sakura.

"Ino." She gave Ino the permission to lower her hand and speak. It was like they were in a meeting and she was leading the discussion.

"I can take care of the food. While you visit the headmistress, I'll go talk to the faeries in the dining hall. They'll most likely help us." Ino brightly told them, taking responsibility of arranging food for their festivities.

"That's great Ino." Sakura praised Ino. "What else do we need?"

"Well that's about it, since the whole thing is all about mingling and making a good impression." Hinata spoke out and handed the notebook back to Sakura with her pen neatly on top of it.

"We'll get to organizing everything, you go visit the headmistress!" Tenten said, waving for her to go see her mentor. Sakura smiled and stood up, heading for the door but suddenly turned around her face pale.

"Do you think I actually have to welcome the students." Sakura's voice trembled. Her friends just looked at her, she'd done just fine standing up to Karin and having the headmistress present her as her mentee, they didn't think it was an issue.

"Well yea sure, but that might be just greeting them when they arrive, maybe organizing a tour for the teachers or something." Hinata said and her two friends silently agreed. Sakura still wasn't sure about it and her friends saw that from her pale face.

"Just go and ask you best mentor in the world!" Tenten said jokingly and pushed her towards the door. Sakura smiled at her friend and waved goodbyes before entering the corridor.

"Where is her room anyway?"

* * *

After wandering around for a good while, Sakura had finally found the headmistress' office. She was standing in front of tall wooden doors with decorative doorhandles. The doors had beautiful cravings on it, Sakura couldn't resist the urge to slide her fingers across the cravings and on the cold surface of the doors, before taking a deep breath and knocking on the headmistress' door.

" _Come in, Sakura!"_

Sakura heard someone call her from the other side of the door and hesitantly pulled one of the doors open to have a peek inside. How did she know it was her? Sakura didn't want to believe her mentor had abilities to see through objects like doors or walls. Maybe she'd just been expecting her. Sakura shrugged it off and entered the headmistress' office. Her office was big and formal. It had a high decorative ceiling with yet another chandelier hanging from it.

'Why are there so many chandeliers?' Sakura thought to herself when examining the room. There was a large window behind Tsunade's desk that was now filled up with paperwork. The walls were almost from top to bottom covered with bookshelves. Sakura admired the amount of books this school had. She started to think if she could read all of them before graduating.

"Ah, Sakura." Tsunade spoke to her which snapped her back to reality. "It's good that you came, we have a lot to discuss."

Sakura stepped forward and sat down into the armchair that Tsunade motioned her to. The back of the chair was taller than her so nobody would see her when entering Tsunade's office. It was like she was hiding, and it made her smile to herself. Tsunade smiled at her mentee, her first ever mentee as the headmistress of Luna Nova.

"So, how have you liked Luna Nova." It was a basic question to start a basic conversation between them. Tsunade had lots to discuss with her but it was better to start out slow and not jump into things right away.

"Oh it's been great, I really like it here." Sakura answered, placing her notebook on her thighs. "I've gotten lots of friends and I'm slowly getting used to all of this."

"It's good that you've adapted, I've actually looked at your file and I saw something interesting that you're probably already aware about." Sakura knew what she was talking about. There was only one thing that she would find interesting about the pink haired girl and that was Sakura in general being able to attend this school.

"Yeah.." Sakura fidgeted in her chair. "I'm of non-magical blood and don't come from a noble family and I'm still here.."

Sakura avoided to look at her mentor in the eye. She already had been assured by her friends that there was more to it than that, but it still sounded strange to her. How could she have a relative in her family that had hid her real life from everyone. She knew it wasn't either of her parents and that she and her friends would be looking into it, but it still was weird. She felt like she didn't know who she truly was.

Tsunade smiled at her. She truly did not know much. "Yes, that is true, but you do have magical blood in you. You have great strength in you that no other witch has had in a long time, I can sense it from you." She said calmly.

"My friends and I are going to find out which one of my relatives was a witch or a wizard!" Sakura told Tsunade with determination, but she didn't look impressed, her expression didn't change at all.

"My dear, it's going to be alot harder than that to understand your heritage." Tsunade stood up and walked over to the large window of her office that covered most of the wall, looking out.

"What do you mean?" Sakura asked her mentor. She didn't turn around but Sakura didn't actually mind facing her back. Now she didn't have to avoid her honey brown eyes meeting the pinkette's green ones.

"You have great magical powers hidden inside of you. There's a reason you were chosen as my mentee, we were destined to meet."

Sakura did not understand what her mentor was talking about. She thought this meeting would be about something completely else, like talking about how she felt about the magic wold and about the ball that was tomorrow. Tsunade had given her the responsibility over everything, it had to be perfect.

Tsunade turned around and looked at her mentee's puzzled expression. Sakura had subconciously brought her hand to her necklace and was now holding the blue crystal in her fingers. She stared at the crystal, wondering if she was correct before.

"Sakura", Tsunade suddenly spoke. "Have you always had that necklace."

Sakura looked at the necklace she was holding in her hands. The blue crystal felt normal against her touch, so familiar.

"Yes, I got it from my grandmother when I was very little. She said it was a family heirloom and I should take good care of it." Sakura told Tsunade who was now studying the little crystal with her brown eyes. Tsunade took a few steps closer and examined it even closer, Sakura decided it was best if she took it off, so she pulled the necklace over her head and held it by it's thin silver chain.

After a while of examining, Tsunade walked to her door, motioning Sakura to follow her as she walked out of her office. Sakura placed her notebook on Tsunade's desk and rushed after her, putting her necklace back on when reaching her. They walked into a part of the academy she'd never seen before. Truly she was so confused about everything that she didn't even consider asking Tsunade about it.

"This castle has always been a place of power for witches." Tsunade told her. She was walking with hands behind her back, but did not look at Sakura when talking to her.

"As you know, we get our magical powers from the sorcerer's stone." Sakura nodded, even though she knew Tsunade didn't see her respond.

"Well, the magic has faded from the world since the golden age of magic. Now we can't use magic outside places of power. At least not most of us." Tsunade and Sakura turned a corner, walking through corridors she didn't even know existed.

"I sense magic in you that hasn't lived in centuries. Although I don't know who is the relative you want to find, I can steer you into the right direction." Sakura was intrigued but surprised at the same time. She didn't want to say anything, she wanted to know more about magic and her heritage, since it seemed to have significant value to Tsunade.

"You told me your necklace is a family heirloom. I've seen before."

Sakura gasped in shock and looked at the glowing crystal that was attached to her necklace. "You have?"

"Yes, I have. Before there were places of power here on earth, there was a shining star that shined blue. It made it possible for witches to practice magic as much as they wanted, anywhere they wanted. Thousands of years ago the star landed here, on earth. Everyone on earth - of course - started fighting over the magical star that gave specific people magical powers – those would be witches and wizards. That's what the greek mythology is really about, they weren't gods but witches and wizards using magical powers and perceived by non-magical people as gods and goddesses."

Sakura was shocked at how little she really knew about _their_ history. She was now a part of _them_ and wanted to learn every single detail Tsunade was going to give her. Tsunade was different, she wasn't smiling, she had a whole new expression. She was focused and relaxed but she felt distant, she didn't seem like the woman that had told her to come into her office.

"It started wars and they didn't end until a great witch of the moon arrived and shattered the star into three pieces. She told three families to place them in different places on earth and ended the war. Witches built places of power around these pieces, one being our academy." Tsunade stopped and urged Sakura to take a look out of a window next to her.

Sakura looked outside and saw what Tsunade had been talking about. Not too far away from the castle there was a white tall tower, taller than the castle – which was already huge in Sakura's opinion. Right on the top of the tower Sakura could see a massive glowing piece of crystal, the same colour as her necklace. She felt herself being drawn to the crystal on top of the tower, it was like she wanted to be a part of it.

Tsunade continued to walk and Sakura rushed after. When Sakura reached her, Tsunade started to speak again. They were almost in their destination.

"When the great witch of the moon shattered the star, a few pieces were left behind – three to be exact. These the witch kept to herself and placed them into magical items, giving them out to the the three noble magical families that had made sure to build places of power around the main three pieces of the star. Until now, we only knew the location of two of them but now you've brought the last one home, since this is where the great witch of the moon brought it. It is rumored that she was a part of the family who built this castle and the tower for the part of the star, which we call the sorcerer's stone."

Sakura was baffled to say the least. That would mean that her magic could've come from one of the three founding families, and if not, whoever she got it from must have been in close contact with them. She was too deep in her thoughts to notice that Tsunade had stopped and they were standing in a room filled with antiquities and other expensive and old looking objects.

"Of course the items have changed owners, been passed down for many generations, been lost and gotten found in the thousands of years they've existed, so there is no way to know for sure who has passed on their magical powers to you, but you should look for specific traits. They would share the same kind of magic you posess, which is different from everybody else's." Tsunade walked over to a showcase that had only a few items in it and reached into it with her hand just like she'd done with the glass ball where she'd drawn her name from.

Tsunade pulled out a wand from the glass box and held it in her hands, she slid her fingertips over the it's uneven surface, before turning around and showing it to Sakura. Before her jade eyes had time to register what was happening, the crystal from her necklace shot up, drawing itself closer to the wand Tsunade was holding.

Before the pinkette could say anything, the crystal escaped it's place in her most valued necklace and flew through the air faster than light. Tsunade grabbed the wand in one hand and pointed it towards the crystal, which flew directly into the tip of the wand she'd been holding. Sakura watched in awe as the wand began to glow and wrap itselft around the crystal, the one she'd been carrying around for as long as she could remember.

Tsunade walked over to Sakura and handed her the wand, holding it in front of the pinkette. She was reluctant to touch the wand in front of her. ( **A/N the wand looks like this I suck at describing things I'm sorry bit .ly/2rMx7K1** )

She was hesitant to touch it. She looked up into Tsunade's honey brown eyes. Her face didn't have a distinct expression on it but Sakura could see the encouragement in her eyes.

Sakura reached for the wand and took it into her right hand. She suddenly felt a connection to the it, like a tingle that spread from her hand and shot through her body, awakening something inside her that seemed to have been sleeping inside her. It was like her soul met something it had lost a long time ago, filling her up with happiness and pleasure. Her whole body shuddered and Sakura let out a cry of pleasure, tightening her grip around the wand. Energy surrounded her body, it felt like a soft breeze moving her silky pink locks and traveling on her skin. Tsunade watched closely as Sakura seemed to get back to their world, opening her emerald green eyes.

"I've never seen anything like that." Tsunade spoke silently, placing her hands on her mentee's sides to support her. Sakura felt a little groggy. Her balance was a little off but with Tsunade supporting her, she was able to recover.

Sakura lifted the wand up so that she could look at it. It was truly beautiful, she felt the same familiar energy now pulse from the wand and not the necklace.

"Let's get back to my office, you've had enough for one day." Tsunade spoke softly and placed her hand on her mentee's lower back, gently gesturing her towards the doorway they'd entered from. Sakura kept staring at the wand in her hand and Tsunade noticed it.

"You didn't have a wand." Tsunade spoke to Sakura, which caught the pink haired girl's attention. Sakura's emerald eyes met Tsunade's.

"I wasn't given one."

"I know. _This_ is your wand."

* * *

Back in Tsunade's office they quickly went through the plan that Sakura and her friends had put together. Sakura was in total awe of her wand, she didn't want to let go of it, because she felt like if she did, it would just disappear. Tsunade knew that this was alot for her to take in, so she kept the rest of their meeting short. She approved of their plan and told Sakura that she should probably go back to her room and get some rest.

Sakura stood up and thanked her mentor, but Tsunade just laughed at her.

"Don't thank me, this was all you." Sakura smiled at her mentor and turned to leave but she heard her call her name again.

"Yes?" She turned to face Tsunade.

"You can summon the wand by calling it by it's name _lunae lumen_. When you don't need it anymore, it will vanish, but you can summon it wherever, whenever and only you can do it, since you've established a link with it." It took a while for Sakura to soak it all in.

"Lunae lumen.." Sakura softly whispered and the wand vanished from her hands.

"It means the light of the moon." Tsunade translated and urged Sakura to get some rest. Sakura was already going through the door when she suddenly turned back.

"Tsunade?" Her mentor lifted her head up from the pile of paperwork she was supposed to finish.

"If the ball is a total bore, can we play something other than classical music?"

Her words caused the headmistress to burst out laughing, holding her stomach and wiping tears from her eyes as they formed. She looked at her mentee and nodded, she would've never expected to hear that. Honestly she'd never been a fan of formal evens, what a way to spice up Luna Nova's old traditions.

"Of course Sakura."

And with that, the pinkette disappeared from the doorway and the door closed behind her. Tsunade stared the place where she'd been sitting.

 _"One day she will learn who she really is."_

* * *

❧ Goddess of Glam


	5. Chapter 5

I'm making an exception in this chapter since I almost poured my heart and soul into making this even though I had much more important things to do. So you see, I'm a procrastinator. But really, I spent almost 12 hours writing and checking this for you guys so I'd really appreciate your comments on my writing so far!

* * *

"Hey forehead! Let's go already!"

Sakura heard Ino's distant yell from their living room but decided to ignore it. She was in their shared closet which Ino had put a spell on, now it was a huge – and stylish – walk in closet about the size of their whole suit that they also shared with Hinata and Tenten. It was filled with clothes, shoes and accessories all over and when it got full, the room would just get larger by itself.

Atleast Ino was very precise about keeping their closet in order so Sakura could always find everything she was looking for since it was always in the same spot; it was just harder to find where Ino had put her things in the first place! Sakura was almost certain she'd seen Ino throw out some of her clothes but she couldn't really be mad at her because she was letting – well sort of making – Sakura wear her clothes, so she didn't even need her own clothes.

"Ha!" Sakura let out a thriumphant yell when she finally found her beige strappy heels that she'd been looking for. She sat down on the fuzzy carpet of their closet and started putting them on when Ino came looking for her.

"Forehead! We have exactly 2 hours before we have to have everything ready and we don't even know where the hell we're gonna direct all the students to. It's not like we can have them in our rooms!" Ino exclaimed waving her arms around. Sakura finished putting her shoes on and stood up, feeling what they felt like. For Sakura heels were an every day kind of thing, especially when she had to feel confident like today – she felt more confident when a few inches taller than she would be normally.

"Yeah yeah, coming!" Sakura muttered and left with Ino, following her to their living area where Tenten and Hinata were standing with their wands out, ready for some action. Sakura looked at them, they looked so perfect, did they wake up at 5 am to start getting ready? She and Ino were always the last ones to get ready and Sakura was hella jealous.

"How do you guys get ready so fast?" Sakura whined when looking at her friends. Hinata had on a black skirt and a lavender split sleeved shirt that showed off her slender arms. She made Sakura want to crawl back into their closet and just stay there.

"Oh you know, we're ninjas." Tenten shrugged, earning a laugh from Sakura.

"Hey seriously, we're in a hurry!" Ino screamed and with that they all hurried out of their room towards the ballroom. Of course Sakura didn't know where that was either.

* * *

"Wow."

"It's huge!"

"Prettyy!"

Sakura heard her friends comment on the ballroom. She herself was in pure awe, not getting words out of her mouth. It was very grande but also very beautiful, with big windows letting natural light into the room. ( **A/N bit .ly/2rujbaU** ) She saw Ino spinning around in the room with arms spread. Sakura felt a flicker of joy inside of her and decided to join her friend, taking her hands and spinning with her. They kept spinning till they couldn't hold onto each other anymore and flew back, sliding on the marble floor. Both of them were laughing but Tenten wasn't sharing their joy.

"Could you two please stop playing around!" Tenten exclaimed and pulled out her wand. Hinata mimicked her actions, also pulling out her wand ready to make so magic happen. Ino glanced at Sakura and how entranced she was by their wands. The blonde got confused, wasn't she supposed to get her wand yesterday. They had all been so tired yesterday that they'd falled asleep right away when everything was done, not really talking about Sakura's meeting with the headmistress – not that it was their business anyways.

"Hey Sakura." Ino called out and Sakura's head turned to her direction. Ino wasn't sure how to tell ask her this gracefully so she just decided to be blunt with it and see how it went.

"Did you get your wand from Tsunade?" She asked and Sakura's face went sheepish when she stood up. Her expression was a bundle of many emotions, which confused Ino – it was a simple yes or no question!

"Uhh yeah, about that." Sakura rubbed the back of her neck and laughed nervously, which caught Tenten and Hinata's attention, who were currently casting a spell on cleaning equipment that would clean the room for them.

"What do you mean _about that_?" Ino asked a follow-up question.

Sakura felt nervous, how was she going to tell her friends something taht she didn't understand herself very well. She'd been confused the whole time Tsunade had told her so how would she repeat the same thing to them.

"Um, do you guys know the tale about the how the sorcerer's stone was created?" Sakura started, earning confused looks from her friends who were clearly wondering why she was talking about this.

"It was a part of a star or something?" Ino recalled with a puzzled expression. Hinata's face brightened the second she said that.

"Yeah! And it was split into three pieces and given to three magical families to take care of!" Hinata added. This made Sakura's job a little easier since they knew atleast half of the story.

"Um.. yeah." Sakura started, trying to feel her necklace, but of course she didn't have it on her since the crystal was now attached to the dang wand. "When the star was split, there were a few shards left that the great wizard of the moon took and placed into three magical items."

"Four." Ino bluntly added. Sakura got confused.

"What?"

"Four, there were four items." Ino repeated and Sakura looked at her like she was crazy.

"But Tsunade told me.." Sakura tried backing out of being the dominant figure in the conversation.

Ino sighed and rubbed her hands together. "It's a family secret, but there were four pieces placed into four objects. When the great witch realized that the fourth one could do harm instead of good, she asked my family to hide it and keep it safe, so that nobody could ever find it."

Sakura looked at her blonde friend who seemed to be a little worried, but there wasn't anything she could do about it.

"It was placed in a rock that could bring people back from the dead, but she soon realized that opening the gates to that realm would place earth in grave danger, so she wanted to hide it. My family has been protecting it and keeping it a secret so that no harm could be done."

"Why are you telling us this?" Hinata asked carefully, Ino seemed to be in a fragile state with this and she didn't want her to close up. Ino took a deep breath in and turned to her friends, her expression was the same confident one with a slight smirk.

"Because I have a feeling Sakura is going to tell us something about the third piece that hasn't been seen in hundreds of years."

This caused both Hinata and Tenten's eyes to widen and turn to Sakura who was looking at her feet. It wasn't an exact confirmation but sure was pretty close.

"Is it true, Sakura?" Tenten breathed.

"Yeah.." Sakura said, avoiding eye contact and rubbing the back of her neck.

"Well what is it?" Hinata wanted to get the specifics on what Sakura was talking about, this was not a matter to joke about. This was a serious part of their history that needed to be cleared out. Sakura took a deep breath and started to explain what had happened yesterday.

"I was with Tsunade and she told me that she'd seen my necklace somewhere but apparently she didn't mean my necklace but the crystal. She took me to this room with antiquities and other old things and grabbed this wand. The crystal from my necklace joined to the wand like it used to belong to it and when I held it, it felt like this part of me was opening, a part I never felt before. Tsunade said I established a link with the wand but I think it's my heritage that allowed me to establish the link."

"But wouldn't that mean.." Hinata gasped.

"..it would." Tenten answered her, turning to Ino.

"Do you realize that this could help in the search for your relative?" Ino exclaimed, secretly happy that she didnt have to go through so many books to look at thousands of names and faces with some similarity to Sakura. She didn't like books, they always made her feel tired and fall asleep – hence why she didn't have that good grades until she came to Luna Nova. Apparently sleeping in class wasn't appreciated by the teachers in her previous school.

"Yes, but we can't know for sure, since the owner of the shard has changed so many times." Sakura remembered what Tsunade had told her. Even though they wouldn't be able to trace the previous owners of the crystal, they had another way.

"Well it's a start, we should probably look into it." Hinata mumbled, thinking about all the possible families that Sakura could share blood with.

"Show us your magic." Tenten suddely spoke out. This got Sakura all nervous and fidgety, she didn't know how to do anything - she barely knew anything about magic. Of course she could've learned about it in classes today, which they had to miss because they were supposed to organize A BALL for tonight and they soon had to be ready.

"I-I can't." Sakura was able to say, she didn't know anything. This made her friends look at each other.

"Do you know that if you're able to establish a link with a part of the star, your magic should be different from normal magic, right?" Ino carefully asked her, ensuring that she knew that there were ways to find her magical ancestors.

"Tsunade said something about that." Sakura told them, which caused Tenten to react.

"Woahwoahwoah, you're on a first name basis with the headmistress?!"

"Of course she is, the headmistress is her mentor after all!" Ino said, giving Tenten a light smack on the head. "Now back to the point, we'll help you. Did Tsunade give you the wand?"

Sakura felt nervous, she'd never summoned the wand before. And the first time she was doing it, she was doing it in front of other people – although they were her friends, but they were other people after all.

" _Lunae lumen."_

Sakura whispered her wand's name out loud. She felt a tingle inside her and the silver wand appeared to her hand. She was almost comforted by the familiar feeling of the wand's energy flowing through her, feeling it's uneven texture against the skin of her palm. The crystal was glowing as per usual, radiating soft blue light. It felt like she was one with the wand, like it's magical energy flowed through her naturally, like her soul was meant to be in contact with this wand.

She raised her hand so that her friends could see the wand, which got them all quiet and staring at her wand, just like she'd done when she'd first seen it.

"It's so beautiful.." Hinata breathed out. She could see Sakura with the wand, she was a natural at holding it. Hinata had learned about sensing energy and power a little bit but it was clearly obvious that Sakura's natural flow of energy was entwined with the wand's magical energy. It was truly her heritage that made it so easy for her to establish a link, how she was able to carry a shard of a star around for as long as she could walk.

"Well, atleast now we know what the missing shard was originally placed in." Tenten pointed out. Now that she had a wand, they would finally be able to teach her some magic, that way they could see what it looked like.

Every witch or wizard has a distinctive look to their magic. Normal witches' magic is green, which is what most people's magic looks like at Luna Nova. It is the most basic form of magic and there are barely any people in the world who have magic different from that. If Sakura was able to establish a link with the wand, she'd most definitely have different kind of magic.

"Okay, let's just stop for a second." Ino stopped them, pressing pause on the whole situation so that they could clear out this whole mess, which currently was called Sakura's weirdly unique magical powers that they hadn't even seen yet.

"We know Sakura's ancestors must have had magic like her's and that's great. It will help us once we see what it looks like because I haven't heard of anyone in a really long time outside a few people of noble heritage to have different kind magic – BUT GUYS. We have a situation and 45 minutes to deal with it!" She annouced. Had they really spent an hour clearing out this whole thing?

"Okay, let's do this." Tenten yelled out, pumping her fist into the air. Hinata grabbed Sakura's other hand and pulled her towards the cleaning supplies that seemed to be done with cleaning, since the ballroom was shining and in pristine condition. She stood next to Sakura and pointed out the cleaning supplies that were still under a spell.

"This is a spell which breathes life into objects, it's simple to cast and simple to undo, but holding it up requires a lot of practice." Hinata explained, "I've done this since I was a little kid but we can practice undoing it as a first step.

Sakura looked at her wand nervously but Hinata's face was confident so she kind of just had to believe in herself. Tightening her grip around the wand she nodded to Hinata, who started to instruct her.

"Okay, so when you want to awaken an object, you say _ansolew airo._ " Hinata explained. "Now point your wand at the supplies. You have to mean what you say, breathe energy into the words and you'll get the hang of it. Now repeat after me: _obdormiscere_."

Hinata's words caused her wand to shoot out green light and when it hit a few cleaning supplies, they immediately fell down to on the floor. She could've probably could've hit them all if she wanted to, but the point was to teach Sakura.

Sakura tasted the word in her mouth. These spells sure not weren't in english but if the magic was older than a couple thousand years then maybe she could understand it. She took a deep breath in, trying to focus as much as possible into what she was about to do.

" _O-obdormiscere."_ Sakura nervously repeated after her, causing her wand to spark out hints of blue light that caused one sponge that was cleaning the walls to drop onto the floor. When Hinata had done it, she'd atleast knocked down two thirds of them and all she could do was one tiny sponge!

Sakura frowned but Hinata lifted her hand up again. "Again, with more confidence!"

The pinkette nodded, pointing her wand at the objects. She felt the familiar energy ooze into her when gripping the wand tighter. She felt more confident, more determined, like she'd gotten an energy boost from her wand and she yelled out with all of her heart the spell.

" _Obdormiscere!"_

Blue light flowed out of her wand as she cast the spell, causing blue light to fill up the room. Within a flash, all of the objects fell down, causing noise when hitting the hard floor. Hinata was quiet for a little while, she'd never seen so powerful magic in such a simple spell. She had seen powerful magic, normal powerful magic but nothing like this – and she just undid a spell she'd cast. Her magic was something she'd never seen before.

There was a clapping sound heard from the open twin doors that led to the ballroom. Sakura turned her head and the sight of her mentor and Shizune looking at her made her feel very nervous. Why couldn't she do anything for the first time in peace, why couldn't she just practice alone before anyone saw her do anything. And that also included normal people stuff – not just magic. She really had to practice being in front of people.

But seeing her mentor's proud face caused Sakura to lose all her nervousness.

"Sakura, I see you're exploring your powers. That is good for a witch with such powers like your own, even though their origin is currently unkown." Tsunade's voice was gentle yet powerful, just like normally. Shizune followed her and stood by her side as Tsunade placed her hand on Sakura's shoulder, smiling to her. "You really are a special kind of witch."

"Thank you, headmistress." Sakura politely thanked.

"Ugh headmistress is too formal, just call me Tsunade, even your friends." Tsunade spoke out, adressing her friends who were now standing quietly. Ino had a small faerie next to her that she'd been talking to before Tsunade had showed up, neither of them had the guts to continue their conversation.

"Now, I've brought you something that might help you with your quest of finding your true heritage." Her mentor picked up a book Shizune had been holding. It was very thick and covered with old dark leather, it looked old all over. Sakura eyed the book her mentor presented her. Letting go of her wand and letting it vanish into thin air, she took the book from her mentor and immediately felt like gravity was pulling her down. Tenten ran to her and helped with the extremely heavy book that Tsunade had held with such ease.

"Oh god, what's in this?" Tenten grunted when casting a levitation spell on the book. She didn't even say anything, just wiggled her wand and the book started to fly on it's own. Sakura shot a confused look towards Tenten, which Tsunade picked up on.

"When you are advanced in simple spells like levitation spells, you don't have to say them out loud. Tenten here seems to be good with levitation spells. I'm guessing she's also a good with flying a broom?" Tsunade hinted and Tenten sheepishly nodded with a pinkish tint on her cheeks, she was actually the best broom flyer in Luna Nova but it was suprising that the headmistress knew about her skills.

"The spell is _volant_ and means fly." Tsunade turned to Sakura and drew out her own wand, just pointing at the book, which caused it to slam down onto the hard marble floor. "It also works backwards, when you're advanced you don't need to say anything to undo the spell."

Sakura summoned her wand and pointed the blue crystal towards the heavy book.

" _Volant!_ " Sakura's wand sparked blue light onto the book, which started to levitate in front of them. This caused Tsunade to smile and Sakura to feel very proud of herself. This was her third time when casting a spell and it had worked out fine, she was really starting to get the hang of it.

"You're a fast learner, Sakura." Tsunade was clearly proud of her mentee, softly smiling to her as she let her wand vanish once again. "I also have something else for you, Shizune has asked if she could help with assigning rooms to the students that will be arriving soon. Connecting with your teachers, very good girls, keep it up!"

Shizune stepped forward, holding a black clipboard in her hands.

"Here I have all the names and room numbers for the boys that will be arriving. They will be here in fifteen minutes so finish up and meet me outside." Shizune told them and both she and Tsunade started to walk away from the girls who - once again - were left in silence by the short haired professor.

"Boys?" Ino shrieked, almost pulling her blonde hair from her head.

"Fifteen minutes!?" The other three girls screamed. Obviously they had different goals set in their minds.

Ino finished up her business with the faerie that would soon deliver all the food to a table that was set beside a big window, while Tenten and Sakura levitated all the cleaning supplies back to a cleaning closet not too far away. Hinata summoned some instruments to a small platform but let them be, they would start to play when she ordered them to and they didn't need to do that in atleast a few hours. When finished, they all let out a tired sigh.

"Two minutes, whoo!" Tenten exclaimed, it had only taken them two minutes to finish everything up, which seemed funny considering that they'd spent almost two hours doing everything else but what they were suppsoed to do.

"Quickly, I need to change clothes!" Ino screamed and ran out of the ballroom, they were supposed to meet Shizune outside in about 10 minutes, of course she had time to pick out a whole entire outfit. Her friends followed her with the levitating book beside them.

* * *

Ino was surprisingly fast when given a timeframe to do something. She'd changed her own clothes and even made Sakura and Hinata change clothes in less than five minutes AND managed to get down onto the yard with plenty of time to spare. Tenten had refused to change clothes from her olive halter top that showed her toned back and ripped denim shorts, there was nobody coming that would make Tenten want to change looks for. Ino had just ignored her tomboy friend and let her hair down. She'd changed into a long flowy t-shirt dress and beige suede thigh high boots, of course ordering Sakura to change shoes since there couldn't be two pairs of shoes in the exact same color and finish. This of course frustrated sakura but what wouldn't she do for friends and agreed to switch back into her black leather litas.

Shizune was waiting for them with the same clipboard that they'd seen earlier. "Good, you're all here. We have to be ready when the Appl-" Shizune was interrupted by the noise of a portal opening up not too far away and people started pouring in. More like guys started pouring in.

Ino watched in awe as a bunch of guys were entering their courtyard, all in fitting suits and red ties. Her blue eyes sparkled but Tenten poked her and hissed her to be normal for a second so she wouldn't scare everyone away. Ino just stuck her tongue out to Tenten.

Hinata and Sakura stood next to Shizune. Sakura scratched the material of her high waisted black skinny jeans with her nails - she was feeling quite nervous and couldn't do anything about it. Her top was similar to what she'd been wearing the day before, except this time it was black. All black didn't look bad on Sakura since she already had a pop of colour in her hair and eyes. The crop top showed a little of her flat stomach and the peekaboo triangles on the sides created a nice contrast to the dark colour of the fabric.

Ino nudged her side. "They're checking you out!" She chirped into her ear, which caused Sakura to blush a little. She wasn't sure if Ino was kidding or not, it seemed like they weren't looking at them at all and if they were, they were looking at the gorgeous blonde next to her.

It took a minute or two, but the portal finally closed – all of the students were now on the courtyard. It wasn't an immense amount one or two hundred at best, they would all fit comfortably in Luna Nova which was a huge castle. Sakura could hear a loud gasp in the crowd and sound of steps coming closer.

" _Sakura!"_

Someone called out her name, which caught her attention. Suddenly she could see a familiar figure run towards her from the huge crowd of people. She smiled when seeing the spiky haired blonde run to her. He pulled Sakura into a hug that she hadn't been expecting, squeezing the life out of her.

"H-hey th-ere." She managed to breathe out, which caused Naruto to let her go and scratch his head sheepishly.

"Hehe, oops, sorry about that." He said before noticing the blue haired woman beside Sakura.

"Hinata-chan!" He almost screamed and hugged the blue haired girl, whose normally pale face had turned bright red when in contact with the blond. She stuttered out a hello, which caused Sakura to raise an eyebrow. How the hell does everybody seem to know everyone and what was going on with Hinata's face?

"You know Naruto?" Sakura blurted out.

"Yeah, Naruto is a friend of Hinata's cousin so we've kind of spent a time together as children." Ino answered when watching the blushing girl and Naruto interact with each other. "Hinata doesn't stutter anymore, she used to when we were little, but I see she's getting back into her old habits when being with Naruto."

"Wait, Neji is here?" Tenten suddenly exclaimed, looking at Hinata fiercely. "Why didn't you tell me?!"

"I didn't know Tsunade was talking about Appleton." Hinata shrugged, her voice was more silent than normally and it seemed like she was really hard trying not to stutter, keeping her eyes strictly off Naruto.

"Is Tsunade-baachan over here?!" An excited yell escaped Naruto's mouth as he glanced over to the big castle that was their school.

"Who is Neji?" Sakura asked Ino, hearing a roaring voice from behind them that made Sakura jump.

"Get your hands off my cousin, Naruto!" a brown haired boy with translucent looking eyes just like Hinata's yelled, walking beside two other guys. One of them looked oddly familiar with his funny looking raven hair.

'It's the guy from the cafe.' Sakura thought to herself when she felt Ino nudge her side.

"You're blushing." she whispered to pinkette, that brought her fingers up to her cheeks, feeling them a little warm. Taking a deep breath in, she looked at Tenten who was looking somewhere completely elsewhere.

"She and Neji have had this rivalry thing for years now but I think she secretly likes him." Ino continued to whisper to Sakura, who was now feeling a little more filled in on what the hell was happening around her.

Naruto let go of Hinata, seeing her all blushed. "Are you alright Hinata?" He asked her worryingly placing the back of his hand on her forehead, which caused Hinata to take a step back.

"O-oh n-no I'm completely f-fine." She stuttered out, trying to reassure Naruto that she was fine. Seeing that Hinata was okay, Naruto turned to face Sakura.

"How do you guys know Sakura? How do you know them?" Sakura felt triumphant for a second after Naruto's question. Finally she wasn't the only one not sure of what was going on.

"She's our roomie." Ino chirped happily, looping her arm around the pinkette's neck and pulling her closer. Sakura laughed and escaped Ino's arm, turning to Shizune.

"Would you please start giving out rooms to the students, we'll be there soon." She asked the short haired woman, who nodded and started walking over to the group of what seemed to be professors. Sakura turned back to face the group of familiar people she'd gathered around her.

"Hey teme! Look, it's Sakura from the café!" Naruto suddenly exclaimed which caused Sakura to look over to the three guys who had arrived.

"Hn. I see." The raven haired guy told Naruto in a very blunt tone, shifting his gaze to the girl with two buns on top of his head.

'Tenten's here, this should be interesting' he thought to himself, glancing over to his friend Hyuga, who was currently having a staring competition with the girl.

"Tenten." Neji suddenly spoke out.

"Neji."

"You look good."

"I know. So do you."

Ino interrupted their conversation which oddly resembled a ping-pong match more than an actual conversation by walking over to one of the guys Sakura didn't know and leaned against his side. Sakura watched her body. Ino was ating around him like they'd seen each other before - which wasn't exactly odd since they seemed to both belong to a group of childhood friends. A group where Sakura didn't belong, not that the feeling of not belonging was new to her.

"Hey Shikamaru, long time no see." Ino purred to him. He sighed and brushed his fingers through his dark hair that was on a ponytail on top his head. He didn't seem bothered by the blonde's presence, just tired in general.

"Hello troublesome woman.." he muttered to the blonde, earning a punch to his side which would most likely bruise later on.

"We've talked about this you pineapple haired man! You DO not call me troublesome!" Ino screamed to him and they started bickering, the pinkette eyeing them and laughing at Ino without noticing that she was being looked at.

The raven haired man was eyeing the pinkette from head to toe. She was slender, shorter than him – she would've looked like any other girl to her except that she had pink hair. It made her stand out and it intrigued him. He'd noticed her in the café but right now she looked more interesting, she looked like worth exploring a little bit.

'Who the fuck has pink hair?' he thought to himself, turning to his stupid best friend who was chatting with his childhood friend who he obviously liked.

"Dobe." He called out, resulting in the blond turning to him.

"Oh yeah. Sakura, this chickenbutt haired ass over here is my best friend, Sasuke." Naruto introduced him to Sakura, which caused Sakura too look at him with raised eyebrows. Sasuke hadn't meant for Naruto to do that, why couldn't he just listen for once before speaking his mind.

"Reeally?" she asked and looked at the guy whose name was finally revealed. For the first time onyx and emerald clashed, resulting them in looking at each other for a good while. Her eyes were something Sasuke had never seen before, her emerald eyes were almost mesmerizing. Sakura was interested, staring into the silent man's eyes who Naruto referred to as an ass.

"Earth to Sakura!" Ino yelled which caused Sakura to break the eye contact she'd had with Sasuke. Ino then proceeded to grab her shoulders and pull her a few steps back, showcasing her to everyone.

"Everyone, this is Sakura. She's our roomie." Ino introduced Sakura like her own child. "Sakura, these are Sasuke Uchiha, Shikamaru Nara, Neji Hyuga – Hinata's cousin – and you already seem to know Naruto."

"Yeah, Naruto actually helped me to find my way to Luna Nova in the first place." Sakura explained to her blonde friend as she escaped her grip once more, proceeding to smile to all the guys she'd just been introduced to.

"Wait", Sakura turned to face Naruto in the midst of her sentence, "you called me magic girl then, in the café. How did you know?"

"Because you said you're going to Luna Nova. I knew it was a magic school because Hinata was also going there!" Naruto's explanation cleared up what had been bothering Sakura for the past three days. Funny how they were reunited again like this, Sakura didn't think she'd see the energetic nice soul from the café she'd been in ever again.

"Guys, what rooms are you staying in?" Ino interrupted Sakura and Naruto from having a longer conversation. She was in that kind of a mood. "Because if you don't know, Shizune is right over there and I can go a- SHIKAMARU WAKE UP!" Ino was interrupted by her desire to go kick the guy sleeping on the grass in the head.

Sakura heard her mutter cursewords under her breath when passing by, dangerously nearing the sleeping boy. Shizune interrupted Sakura's train of thoughts by calling out her name.

"Yes, professor Shizune?" she turned to her, a slight breeze tickling her exposed skin. Her pink locks brushed against her bare shoulders, for some reason she was feeling quite attractive at the moment.

"I'm starting to guide all the students to their rooms and since you're all acquainted, you might want to take them to their room." Shizune told the pinkette and handed her a note with names and a room number on it.

"I will, thank you." The pinkette turned to her friends reading out what was printed on the piece of paper Shizune gave her.

"Hyuga, Nara, Uchiha and Uzumaki, room 672." Sakura raised her nicely shaped pink eyebrow at the text she'd just read out, carefully eyeing it again with her emerald eyes.

"Isn't that right next to ours?" Hinata asked, turning to look at the tower where their room was located in. One large window reflected the sun's light but Sakura wasn't sure if it was theirs or someone else's room.

"Yup." Tenten confirmed, crossing her arms over her chest.

A mass of guys Shizune was leading passed them by. Sakura could feel herself being looked at and heard a few whistles from guys looking at her and her friends.

"Looking good!"

"Hey hotties!"

Ino was flattered by the compliments and whistles but Sakura felt uncomfortable, she'd never been complimented for her physique. She understood the compliments; Tenten was the fittest girl in the whole academy, Ino and Hinata were both drop dead gorgeous, but she'd never found herself to be physically appealing to other people.

"See Sakura, they think you're totally hot!" Ino exclaimed, attracting Sakura's attention to her. Sakura didn't say anything but her look was denying it, which Sasuke picked up on. This girl was intriguing him like nobody else had ever, she seemed so complex.

"Ah, whatever, let's just go!" Tenten yelled, already walking in front of them.

After entering the castle Ino walked over to Sakura's side since she was walking a little behind everyone. At first she was quiet, which Sakura was surprised to see from her bubbly friend.

"You have the hots for the Uchiha."

Her sudden words caused Sakura to snap her head up from watching her shoes. Thank god nobody could hear them. "Do not."

"Yes you do! I saw how he looked at you, don't try to deny it. You're hot pinky."

"Pinky?" Sakura looked at her blonde friend but she seemed to be serious. Focusing on irrelevant details was her speciality when it came to avoiding subjects she didn't want to talk about.

" _EVERYONE LOOK IT'S SASUKE UCHIHA!"_

" _OMG NEJI HYUGA!"_

" _MARRY ME SHIKAMARU!"_

" _NARUTO I LOVE YOU!"_

"Oh god, here we go again." Ino sighed, grabbing the pinkette's wrist forcefully and sprinting into a corridor and away from the group of girls, just like the 6 other teenagers.

Tenten was leading the pack. They were running through corridors and hallways faster than ever but every single time a pack of screaming girl students seemed to find their way after them. Sakura was panting, she could hear blood flowing in her ears and the distant screams of the apparent fangirls – why were all the other girls so calm about this, they were being attacked for god's sake!

They made their way up a few floors but got trapped before they could escape to a stairwell. Sakura saw that the girls come closer and closer until they were tightly pressed against each other with no way out, girls coming closer from both directions.

"Shit." Sakura heard Tenten grumble but she heard a whisper from somewhere. It was a faint woman's voice whispering words to her. She felt energy rush through her, like her own body was commanding her and telling her what to do.

" _Lunae lumen." S_ he summoned her wand, feeling energy pumping through her veins. Gripping her wand she told her friends to prepare.

" _Lanuae magicae!"_ she yelled out an incantation, feeling a familiar tingle and energy surge rush through her mind as she pointed her wand upwards and blue light flew from the crystal. She lost herself in the feeling that she'd done this before, her conciousness slowly dropping to pitch black darkness.

* * *

Sakura didn't see anything. Her body felt weak and wobbly, she couldn't control it even if she tried – and she tried. Distant noises filled up her head but she didn't know where they were coming from. She could hear them coming closer and clearer when time passed by, until someone touched her and she awoke from the tormenting darkness.

Her eyes flew open and she took a deep panicky breath in, scaring the shit out of everyone. At first she couldn't see anything but white, but her vision soon started getting back to normal. She was lying on one of the sofas located in their room with 7 people just plainly staring at her. How had she gotten there and why was everyone staring?

"Woah, calm down with the eyes." Sakura shielded her face with one hand from everyone's eyes when pushing herself into a half sitting up position, supporting herself with her one hand. Nobody said anything, they still kept staring.

"What, is my hair funny or what?" Sakura was generally confused what they were so shocked about. Mostly her 4 female friends and Naruto seemed truly shocked to the core but the three other guys did look like they'd seen a ghost or something.

"Sakura!" Tenten exclaimed.

"Tenten?" Sakura answered with a questioning look.

"Do you realize what you did?" Tenten asked her, lowering herself onto one of the couches. She was staring at Sakura with maybe the most serious face she'd ever seen from her.

"Umm, no not really. What did I do?" Sakura tried to remember what happened a while ago, she remembered hearing a woman speaking to her and acting on instinct and pu-

"You used teleport magic." Neji answered her question before Tenten could even open her mouth, interrupting Sakura's train of thought and earning a glare from Tenten which he answered with a smirk.

"And what's so special about that?"

"Well maybe that it's advanced level magic that nobody except for the most powerful witches and wizards like Tsunade can use. Also you got your wand yesterday and hadn't used magic UNTIL THIS MORNING!" Ino screamed. Sakura was finally starting to get the picture. Her wand wasn't with her but Sakura had gotten used to it disappearing, she'd just summon it whenever she needed it.

Sakura looked at Ino's face which had gotten pretty red from yelling, Shikamaru was patting her back trying to calm the blonde down. Sakura looked away from everyone, standing up but wobblying a little. She managed to take a few steps but lost her balance, expecting a rough impact with the floor – which did not happen. She looked up to see onyx eyes she felt like she could drown in, Sasuke's strong arms holding her. Sakura looked away and stood up, starting to walk and freeing herself from Sasuke's tight grip. She didn't know where, it was more important for her to get away from the situation she was currently in.

"Thank you, but I'm feeling just fin-" Her face made contact with the floor which stopped her from talking.

"Why does she keep walking around when she's clearly not okay?" Sakura heard Sasuke asking, not bothering to get up.

"Meh, she's stubborn." Ino shrugged, she was used to Sakura's behavior even though they hadn't been acquainted for that long. Hinata sat down on to the floor next to Sakura, who was currently just laying there, debating whether or not to get up on her feet.

"But is she stupid?" Sakura shot up when she heard the words coming out of the raven haired Uchiha's mouth, her raging emerald eyes meeting with his onyx ones. Sasuke's expression was a very plain one, he didn't show much emotion. Sakura was growing tired of watching his bored face, how could Ino even thing she would find him attractive.

Sakura couldn't help but to act on instinct and smacked Sasuke. Her palm made contact with his face so hard that he had to stumble back a little, grabbing a hold of the sofa Ino was currently sitting on for support. In disbelief he brought his own hand on the cheek the pinkette had just slapped. Had someone truly just hit the Uchiha Sasuke in the face. Had a girl just hit him? A girl with _pink_ hair?

"Finally Teme got what he deserved!" Naruto laughed out loud, earning a few nods of agreement. Sakura rubbed her right palm, hitting him had hurt a little but not nearly as much as she'd hurt him.

"Apparently you're just annoying." Sasuke said, glaring at Sakura who responded with a mischievous smirk.

"That I can deal with."

Triumphantly she'd literally smacked some variety into him, his expression wasn't the same old bored emotionless mask, he'd actually showed some emotion.

"Sakura you literally saved out lives down there!" Sakura heard Tenten's words and turned to look at her. She would get to the bottom of what happened down there and she wasn't talking about her magical powers. Who the fuck were all those girls and why did they chase them.

"About that, what the hell guys?! Anyone wanna fill me in?" Sakura demanded an explanation, she'd find out more about the magical powers when talking to Tsunade, but this she wanted to know now.

"Oh. Yeah. You don't know do you?" Tenten's answer was useless to Sakura.

"Know exactly what?!"

"That the four guys you are here currently just hanging out with are the children of the most important leaders of this country, loaded as fuck and also as you can see", Ino started to explain in a matter-of-factly way, pointing her finger towards the four guys, "hot."

"F-fangirls have always been a problem for us, we've just gotten used to them by now." Hinata continued, blushing when Naruto wrapped his arm around her waist.

"Yeah but we don't care for them." He explained, smiling to Sakura. The pinkette could've sworn that at least one of the guys was a fuckboy but maybe she should just give them the benefit of the doubt. And if someone was, it would most definitely be Sasuke since Neji and Tenten had their competition thing and Shikamaru just seemed too lazy. Naruto was out of the question. The way he acted around Hinata clearly signed that he wasn't really interested in anyone else.

"Good to know." Sakura genuinely meant what she said and sat next to Ino, letting out a tired sigh.

"When does the ball start?" Sakura asked Ino who looked at the clock.

"Like, right now. Which means you guys get the hell out, your room is to the left just meet us downstairs later, we have hostess jobs to do." Ino shooed the boys out of their room and leaned against the now closed door for a few seconds before jumping into action. This day never seemed to end.

"Okay girls, let's dress up."

* * *

❦ Goddess of Glam


	6. Chapter 6

"How have you managed to be late to a party you're supposed to throw!"

Sakura's lungs were burning and she felt like she couldn't breathe, but her legs just kept on swinging back and forth when she and her friends were rushing down a spiral staircase. They were already late, they were supposedd to be downstairs in the ballroom before anyone else to put on the finishing touches, but obviously – that didn't work as planned.

"Well, I don't know, pig! Maybe cause you couldn't choose a dress. Or your shoes. Or your accessories. Or yo-"

"I get it, no need to be butthurt." Ino interrupted Sakura, bored of her tone of voice and crossed her arms over her chest. Ino let out a small huff, signaling everyone how unhappy she was but her friends just rolled their eyes. Slowly Tenten started to slow down, her friends mimicking her actions.

" _Queen."_ Sakura thought when glancing at Ino's childishly petty expression but slowed her movements down to calm walking.

The group mutually understood that they couldn't just burst in to the ballroom all panting and sweating in their gowns or – in Tenten's case – a dressy black pantsuit that made her slim and long legs look even longer.

"I'd rather be late than ugly. At least now I'm going to be the prettiest one there, and nobody ever called being fashionably late improper."

Sakura smacked her forehead. "That's exactly what being late is, improper!"

Ino's plump pink lips curved into an 'o' shape and her eyes went from their usual large size to even larger. Her expression turned from cheery and proud to all scrunched up in thought and realization slowly dawned upon her.

"Ah, so that's why my parents were mad about me being 'fashionably late' to dinners and parties we hosted!"

Sakura smacked her forehead again, but so did Tenten and Hinata. She was sure she'd just heard Tenten mutter 'idiot' under her breath which caused her lips to curve into a smug smirk.

"I'm not even going to comment on that." Sakura spoke out to Ino and turned to Tenten. "How did you convince Ino to let you put on a pantsuit instead of a dress?"

Tenten let out a soft chuckle and grasped the fabric on the thighs of her pantsuit and lifted it so that Sakura could see her shoes. The pinkette's emerald eyes glistened as she let a cheerful gasp escape her lips.

"You're wearing heels!" She screamed, earning a glare from Tenten that gave her chills. Suddenly Tenten closed in the comfortable gap of a rough meter between them, covering the pinkette's mouth with her palm. Sakura let out a muffled yelp though Tenten's palm, who was glaring down at her.

"You won't tell anyone or sleep with one eye open tonight." Sakura nodded in response to Tenten's threat."

"Good that we're in an understanding." Tenten stepped away from Sakura and flashed a smile like nothing had happened. For Sakura it took a few seconds to recover from Tenten's eyes that stare into the depth of her soul, sending shivers down her spine.

' _Whoa, she can be scaaary.'_ Sakura thought to herself, pushing the occurrence out of her mind.

"Okay, get ready. We're almost there." Hinata – who was now walking in front of everyone else – informed when they reached another hallway. This one was wider than the one they'd been in before and it led straight to the entrance of the ballroom. Which they already were supposed to be in.

The entrance was now blocked with students.

' _Crap!'_ Sakura thought to herself. How would they sneak in now that there were students lining up in front of the entrance.

Students, girls and guys, were forming a neat line that lead to the entrance, which was a staircase that lead down into the extravagant ballroom. One by one they walked forward, showcasing themselves to the people already in the ballroom and then walking down and joining the rest.

But that wasn't good. They were supposed to be down there, they were supposed to be there half an hour ago finishing up, putting up last details and decorations!

When they got closer, a faint sound of classical music played by strings could be heard, which released the tightness Sakura had started to feel around her chest.

"Ah good, someone did our 'finishing up' for us." Ino sighed in relief and held her palm gently against her chest. Sakura hoped that that someone who cast the spell the instruments to make them play would've also finished up with the decorations and such.

"What are they doing?" It didn't take long for Sakura to yet againt jump into the matter at hand. Ino gave her a confused look but understood that Sakura didn't really know anything about the traditions at Luna Nova.

"It's a tradition that all students attending a ball will be announced when they step on the top of the stairs." Ino explained and pointed to the first person in the line who was now at the top of the stairs, getting her name announced for everyone already inside.

This custom seemed weird for Sakura. "But why?"

"Because everyone wants to know just how pretty, rich and important you are." Tenten stated matter-of-factly and crossed her arms over her chest. "Ridiculous, right? I never want to do these things but it's a tradition and you won't get in otherwise."

"What?!" Sakura whisper-shouted, trying not to get any attention from the other students drawn to them, especially if she was going to throw a hissyfit in front of her friends. "What do you mean you won't get in?"

Sakura didn't want to be showcased in front of people, she'd gotten more attention in the few days she'd been at Luna Nova than from anyone in her whole entire life. It wasn't exactly odd for her to not want more. Nervously she grabbed a fistful of the soft farbric of her dress, only to be touched by Ino and encouraged to let the fabric go.

"Don't get wrinkles on it, looks better that way." The blonde warned and Sakura let go of the fabric but otherwise didn't focus on the blonde.

"You know, there is only way to enter." Tenten tried to explain. "There is only the main entrance also acting as the exit but there is no other way in or out."

"But what if I don't want to walk down the stairs and have my name announced? What if I just want to be a normal student with no attention on me what so ever? To be honest not even I know who I am right now!" Sakura cried out.

"Yeah and we're figuring that out but right now you don't have a choice." Ino calmly told Sakura, who turned her head to watch the other students walk down the stairs. Sighing in defeat she took a step closer to the line which was now as short as two people in front of them. All of the other students were already inside if you didn't count a few who just decided not to show up.

Sakura got a little peek of the ballroom. It was filled with student and teacher mingling, turning to watch yet another student walk down the stairs.

"I doubt the guys are even in there." Ino's words were more of a statement than anything else. Sakura raised a perfectly shaped pink brow at her friend.

"They're just like not that into parties." Ino cleared out.

"Except for Naruto." Hinata added with a soft smile on her lips, causing Ino and Tenten to chuckle. Sakura just smiled. She wasn't really a part of their group, she was new and they'd known each other for almost their entire lives.

"Yes, they hate parties _except_ for Naruto." Ino corrected her words in the midst of her laughing and turned to the front of the line, which was extremely short.

Now the two students before them were gone and the man who was supposed to announce them was looking at them weirdly.

"Aren't you coming?" He asked them, motioning them to come closer. Sakura looked at her friends. There was no way she was going first and they knew it very well.

"I'm not going first." Sakura stated the obvious, crossing her arms into an 'x' in front of her chest, which resulted Ino letting out a – clearly not authentic – deep sigh.

"Well I'll go first so that you'll see it's not even that bad." Ino sacrificed herself and stepped out in front of everyone. She threw her hair over her shoulder and posed like a supermodel. Damn, she'd definitely done this before.

You could hear 'ooh's and 'ahh's from down below when she stepped out in all of her gorgeousness. She was wearing a form-fitting dress that showed off all the curves of her body but was also flowy at the bottom. She looked like she'd been dipped to a pool of diamonds with her dress on since it was almost a see-through material but it was covered in sparkle and gems – in a tasteful way. Everyone was sighing and gasping at the sight of her and they should have.

"Ino Yamanaka!"

And with that Ino gracefully descended the staircase like the princess she was – or at least acted like - and when she reached the ballroom she already had people swarming around her.

"Typical Ino." Tenten laughed at the sight of her drowning in people. "Your turn!"

Sakura had no way of protesting before Hinata and Tenten both pushed her forward so that she stumbled in the spotlight for everyone to watch. She could feel the hundreds of people staring at her, examining her and her looks in the rough ten seconds they would have of her. But to Sakura, it felt like hours.

" _Look at that dress!"_

" _Who is she?"_

" _Is she new?"_

Silent whispers filled the room and Sakura knew all too well that they were all talking about her. _Her_. The person who wasn't of magical-blood or of any importance what so ever - she who entered Luna Nova with no skills or knowledge of their world. No fame, no fortune, no importance.

Sakura felt the silky fabric of her dress against her fingertips. The blood red dress hugged her body, showing off her petite, slim body without exposing too much skin. The sweetheart neckline suited her body shape, the silky fabric pooling around her feet. The red was flattering on her, bringing out her soft pink hair and dazzling emerald eyes. In all honesty, deep down she felt like a queen.

" _Sakura Haruno!"_

Nobody said anything after her announcement, everyone went completely quiet. Even the instruments had stopped playing. In that moment Sakura hesitated whether or not to move. It was like she was frozen in time, Sakura could hear her heart pounding in her ears.

 _Show them who you are._

It was the second time Sakura heard the soft voice calling out to her. It was the same voice calling out to her that she'd heard in the corridor before. It was so familiar, so soft like whisper but reassuring to her. It lit a fire inside of her. Like with her magic, she felt a glow coming from within her, feeling a rush of energy flowing through her body.

So she lifted herself up, chin up and her whole character revamped into this gorgeous and confident person she had never seen before.

But she liked her.

Suddenly the silence was broken by someone clapping their hands together for Sakura, whose emerald green eyes widened. Trying to see who it was, she took her first step down on the stairs, her dress flowing around her. A few more people added into the clapping. Sakura felt surprised by the reaction, continuing to move as if they were encouraging her. While she gracefully descended the staircase, the crowd of students and teachers started applauding for the pink haired girl, Tsunade's mentee – the girl who came from nothing but suddenly had everything. She heard yells and whistles from the raging sound of hands clapping together, which only made her feel more confident.

She felt gorgeous, she felt noble. She felt unapologetically powerful, sexy and happy. And she was not mad about it.

When she reached the marbled floor, everyone was still applauding. Sakura had this newly found confidence in her, she felt like she was a princess. She felt she was important, something she'd barely ever felt before. Suddenly she saw something moving in the corner of her eye. It was Ino waving and mouthing words to her.

" _Speak!"_ Sakura could almost hear her words as she mouthed them to her. The clapping slowly died down and Sakura awkwardly cleared her throat, her voice almost breaking.

"Thank you all for coming to our celebration to humbly welcome the students and teachers of the Appleton academy. I am Sakura, your hostess tonight and I would like to welcome the people who made this all possible beside me right now."

Sakura got stronger in her speech with every word. She spoke with courage and confidence, meaning every word. She motioned Ino to come stand beside her and Tenten and Hinata to step out. Ino rushed from the crowd next to her friend, taking the attention she had on her all in. Tenten and Hinata both stepped out of the shadows for everyone to see as the man who was supposed to call their names looked at them in shock. How could these people completely dismiss the traditions and turn it into mockery? Earning a glance from Hinata, he gathered himself.

"Hinata Hyuga and Tenten-"

He was stopped by the brunette's commanding palm. She drew her hand back to her side and turned her head as gracefully as she could.

"Just Tenten."

Then they descended together, looking as beautiful as ever. Sure they were breaking tradition, descending together, but Sakura was making everything different. She was breaking rules, traditions and norms by just being herself – and that was just what Luna Nova needed. Tenten and Hinata took their places next to Sakura and Ino and the pinkette sent them a warm smile and continued with her speech.

"I couldn't have done everything by myself and I thank my friends from the bottom of my heart for helping me make this all happen. We all wish you the greatest night of your school year. Let the celebrations begin!"

Sakura still felt the rush inside of her, when the crowd bursted into another set of applauses. She felt her wand tickling in her hand and it felt as if she had someone telling her what to do inside of her. And she did what she felt was right.

" _Coruscent!"_

Sakura shot up a sparkling light from her wand that flew up in the air before exploding into a cloud of shimmer, slowly starting to fall down like snow. With a smile she and her friends stepped to the side, away from everyone's observing eyes.

They made their way next to one of the large windows that showed the view of the gorgeous garden Luna Nova had. Sakura's eyes were instantly drawn to the beauty of the nature and she felt like she could've stared at it for hours.

"Sakura!" Ino screamed and Sakura jumped from being startled. "That was amazing! Nobody has ever received a reaction like that. You looked drop dead gorgeous when standing up there, maybe even more beautiful than me! You looked like you were a princess gracefully gliding down that staircase! And, god, that speech, don't even get me started!"

Sakura looked at her faint reflection in the window. She hadn't had time to actually see herself, they basically ran out right after she got her dress on. But she saw what Ino was talking about, she did look utterly beautiful and she felt like a princess.

"I swear I saw Karin rip hair out of her head when you were applauded!" Tenten chimed in on the celebrations, which caused her to feel a different kind of happiness.

' _Hopefully next time she knows better.'_ Sakura thought, unapologetically proud of her performance.

"And those sparkles! Where did you learn that?" Hinata chimed in, brushing her fingers through her silky blue hair.

"Yeah, Sakura. Where did you learn that from?" Tenten was as confused as Sakura herself, she couldn't exactly answer their questions clearly.

"Um, you know." Sakura started sheepishly, pulling out her wand. "It was almost like I did it unconsciously."

She earned weird looks from her friends, her face twitching in frustration. How could her friends not get what she was talking about when she vaguely and barely even explained it to them?

"It's like I knew what I was doing without actually knowing what I was doing. Like someone was telling me what to say." Sakura further explained, pulling out her wand and staring at it.

Hinata stepped closer to examine the wand. She let out a humming sound and bent her back just a little to watch the wand in Sakura's hand closer.

"Could it be linked to your wand?" Hinata pondered and Sakura started nodding.

"Oh yeah, it's definitely linked to my wand. Tsunade talked about how my soul clicked with the wand and something about my past and heritage and what not."

"Well we should look into it but put it away for now, we can't afford a scene like we had today in this same very spot. Except that the people would be everyone in this room." Hinata spoke out and motioned the pinkette to put her wand away.

It had been exactly an hour after the ball's pink haired hostess was welcomed to the ball she was hosting – and late to – with a bang, her friends joining her as she formally thanked her friends for organizing such an event with her for the students of the two schools. After stepping aside, the next hour was almost killing them. Not only were they trying to make sure everything was perfect as they should've before the ball began, they were getting students thrown at themselves from all directions AND they had to keep everything under control. It was Tsunade's task for Sakura to make it perfect and the group of four would not let anything ruin the night.

Tenten shut the curtains and the large glass doors right behind them that lead straight from the ballroom to a balcony where she and her three other friends were catching a breath of fresh air before round two of the stress and chaos that was only visible for them, not for anyone else.

Ino pulled out her wand and created a soft mattress on the hard and cold floor of the balcony. A slight breeze moved her hair out of her face and she looked at her three friends, who were now currently looking at her very confused.

"Well if I'm going to rest, I'm not laying on the dirty and cold surface of this balcony. And neither should you." Ino stated as she collapsed first on the soft mattress, kicking her heels off her feet and letting a deep moan of relief escape her lips.

Sakura, Tenten and Hinata all followed her example, laying down on the mattress. Sakura pressed her cheek against the soft surface, making sure her makeup didn't move on her face or stain the mattress – not that it mattered since it was just created for the sole purpose of them being able to lay down.

"These things were a lot more fun when you weren't in charge of them." Ino groaned as she stretched her limbs. They had had a tough time before but it would probably end now that they had handled most of the work. Nobody answered to Ino but the agreement was clear even without any of them saying a word.

They laid there in complete silence, comforting themselves in the sweet sounds of nature. Nobody said anything, they didn't have any reason to, but they did need to go back in before someone actually noticed they were gone, even if it had been only a few minutes.

Hinata finally spoke out, breaking the silence that had fell between the resting group of friends.

"The damn strings are still playing and I'm getting sick of them."

Her friends laughed out loud. That was the first thing that would break the silence and the fact that it came from Hinata made it even more amusing. Stretching her arms but not making any moves indicating getting up, Sakura smiled to her friend.

"Yeah, we should do something about that."

Suddenly all four of the girls were drawn to the sound of the glass doors opening. Sakura's eyes widened as she turned to look at Tenten with widened eyes.

"You didn't lock the doors?" she hissed to the brunette who just shrugged her shoulders and shook her head.

"I didn't exactly think we were going to be laying down on a mattress." She hissed back, trying to justify her forgetting to lock the doors since she didn't feel like there was any need to. Well it was way late now when figures walked out from behind the curtains.

"A sleepover without me? How troublesome.." Shikamaru muttered as he walked out, being followed by his friends.

None of the girls said anything, they just laid there in complete silence, none of them really knew what to say.

"What the hell are you doing?" Neji spoke out when seeing the four girls laying on the mattress – yes, a mattress – outside on a balcony while there was _a ball_ inside which _they_ were responsible for. He eyed them, locking his eyes with the fierce brown eyes of a certain bun haired girl.

"None of your business, Hyuga." Tenten responded, still not making any efforts to get up from the comfortable spot she was in. Sakura rolled her eyes, rolling onto her stomach and supporting her head on the backs of her hands, her elbows in the mattress.

"Just, close the doors would you." Ino more ordered than asked but Naruto shut the doors behind them, giving them some privacy – not that they needed it. It was mostly so that nobody saw them, since it could be seen as unorthodox and improper – which it was but the rules were changing anyways.

Sakura let out a sigh and sat up on the mattress. Just when she was about to get up, her eyes met dazzling blue ones.

"Need some help, _magic-girl_?" Naruto teased as he offered his hand to her. The centerpiece of the whole ball probably shouldn't get her dress all wrinkled up, how would she explain this?

A heartful laugh escaped the pinkette's lips. "More like _non_ magic-girl." Sakura noted as she took the blonde's hand. She wasn't wearing any heels - she'd thrown them somewhere nearby – which made her standing up easier. Naruto pulled her to her feet and she was met with a bone-crushing hug from the spiky haired blond.

"Na-naruto..can't..bre-e-athe.." Sakura managed to breathe out, which resulted in Naruto quickly letting go of her but still holding onto her shoulder for support as she was catching her breath.

Shikamaru ignored them but as Sakura's spot on the mattress was freed, he laid down next to Ino. Ino's blue eyes met with Shikamaru's.

"Hey." She greeted him, her voice soft instead of loud and it surprised Shikamaru.

"Hi." He responded and turned to look at the night sky with a few stars already lighting up the sky.

Ino turned to look at the sky as well. She didn't take off her eyes from it, not even for a second.

"You're looking quite handsome tonight."

Shikamaru didn't answer, it was quite normal for him but Ino knew that him not responding was something other than being rude or ignorant so she just went with it. The pinapple-haired boy wasn't much to show emotion or talk overall.

Their hands grazed each other. Ino felt goosebumps all over her body and softly bit her lip but still didn't take her eyes off the starlit sky.

"Sakura do you understand how insane that was?" Naruto finally opened his mouth after he saw Sakura was doing just fine.

"What do you mean?" The pinkette asked, raising her pink perfectly shaped brow.

"Well.." Naruto started, which sparked Sakura's interest. "First of all, you looked amazing out there."

Sakura felt blush creeping up to the tops of her cheekbones.

"But you're breaking and rewriting basically all the rules there are tonight – but that's a good thing!"

Sakura's both eyebrows rose high in surprise after she heard what Naruto had to say.

"What did I do?" she asked in shock.

"Well you held a speech in the middle of the descending and invited your friends to descend together. The hostess of any social event never shares credit and nobody _ever_ gets applauded when descending down the staircase." Neji answered before Naruto could and caught Sakura's attention. He wasn't looking at her or anyone else, he had his arms crossed over his chest and he was staring into the garden and the forest behind it.

"Ever?" Sakura needed confirmation she'd heard correctly.

"Ever." Naruto confirmed. "But what you did was amazing, I've never seen anything like it and you've made a great impression to most people out there. You sure got noticed by a few people I might add."

Sakura remembered how she'd felt. So powerful yet elegant and sexy, that was how she'd live her life from now on. She didn't need to be the same old boring Sakura, since now she knew she was and could be so much more.

The moment was interrupted when Tenten decided to stand up, she was signaling that it was time to get back inside. Naruto rushed to Hinata whom he helped to get up. He held her hand even after she'd gotten up and stroked her soft skin with her thumb. Sakura smiled at the sweet moment the two were having and picked up her shoes. The break was over and they had to go back and make sure everything was going perfectly.

"We should probably get back inside." Sakura sighed as she slipped her heels back on and stroked her dress to make sure there weren't any wrinkles.

"Can we be of any assistance?" Neji politely asked like a gentleman and stepped closer to everyone. Sakura was positively surprised, she didn't think Neji was a gentleman like that. She'd figured he was just a player that gave no thought to these kinds of things, but apparently she was wrong. He was much more like his cousin than Sakura would've guessed. Apparently it was only Uchiha who twirled women in his fingertips and threw them away after like yesterday's trash.

"Well Hinata, could you go do something about this god-awful music." A smile rose to Sakura's lips.

"Naruto, you should go help Hinata."

The hyperactive blond smirked and grabbed Hinata's hand. Sakura took that as a yes.

"I'll go check in with Tsunade, Tenten you make sure nobody is causing any trouble."

Sakura had one red-haired girl in mind who would most likely be causing trouble so it was best if Tenten made sure that everything was going to go smoothly.

"I'll check with the faeries that everything with the food is perfect and that there are no mix-ups or accidents." Ino volunteered and earned a nod from Sakura who opened the doors to the ballroom and walked in, being followed by Naruto who was almost running and dragging Hinata behind him by the hand.

Tenten walked up to Neji, getting so close to his side that they almost touched. She had a devilish smirk on her lips and she rose her hand and slid her sharp, perfectly shaped fingernail down the handsome boy's cheek.

"Well you can make sure nobody is bothering me."

It didn't hurt, it wasn't supposed to. It was more her throwing him a challenge which he accepted by clashing his gaze with hers. Tenten broke the eye contact when she stepped forward, behind him and calmly walked inside and into the massive group of people.

'God, why is she such a tease' Neji growled in his mind as he turned to follow the smirking brown-haired girl.

* * *

Naruto and Hinata were struggling to get through the crowd of people, trying to dodge all kinds of hems and trying not to step on anyone's shoes or toes. The blond had his hand on Hinata's wrist and was pulling her after him, gently of course. He was always careful around his childhood friend.

After dodging and jumping around across the dance floor, the two finally managed to get to the enchanted instruments still playing their beautiful music. They didn't think it wasn't beautiful but it was traditional. It was boring. And since they had the permission of the headmistress, it shouldn't be much of a trouble.

Wjat would Hinata do? What kind of music was she going to play, what was she exactly going to do. Of course she was going to get rid of this boring chamber music but what was she going to do then - replace the instruments with a singer and a piano? Or would she just get a small cd player and some speakers.

Naruto nudged Hinata's side, trying to get her to do something. The blue-haired girl's mind was wandering somewhere else but the sensation of Naruto's elbow slightly nudging her side brought her back in a heartbeat. What was she doing? Oh, right, she was going to get this party started.

" _Obdomiscere."_ Hinata pointed at the instruments as she recited the spell that undid the one she'd done before.

 _"Evanescent._ _"_ With a flick of her wand the instruments vanished in front of Naruto's cerulean eyes. He had seen magic before, but not right in front of him. Hinata was confident in her magic and it practically oozed from her. It was attractive, to see someone so confident in herself and what she did.

But now they had a problem. Even though the strings were only for background music, everyone noticed when the music suddenly just stopped in the middle of a well known symphony. Hinata felt the red heat of embarrasment rise upto her cheekbones when she saw how everyone was looking at her. She didn't exactly think this one through.

"Hinata, just continue with your magic." Naruto whispered to the blue-haired girl and laid his hand on her lower back, encouraging her to continue without caring about people looking.

Her blush deepened as she felt Naruto touch her. She felt fluttering in her heart and her heart beated a little faster. Hinata gripped her wand harder, bringing it close to her chest. She softly bit her lip when tying to figure out what to do next. Making the instruments vanish was easy, what to exchange them to was a little harder to figure out.

 _'Maybe you should_ _'ve thought this though, stupid!_ _'_ Hinata cursed herself in her mind and breathed out. Her pearlescent eyes met with Nauto's and he instantly saw her troubled look. He knew that look, he'd seen it before during the time they'd knew each other – which was a very long time regarding that the Uzumaki and Hyuga families were good friends and business partners. He'd known Hinata almost from birth.

Naruto figured out what they could do and leaned closer to whisper something in Hinata's ear. His breath tickled her and it made her squirm, but his suggestion was good.

"Would it work?" she asked and Naruto replied with a confident nod. Hinata didn't have any better ideas so she decided that Naruto's idea was the best way to go. She answered Naruto with a nod and corrected her stance.

 _"Videtur_ _"_ she whispered, swishing her wand around. With a puff of smoke, in front of them appeared a mixing table with large speakers and amplifiers. Very much too modern for the traditional ball, but Hinata just had to trust Naruto on this one.

"Now what?" she whispered to the boy next to her, her shoulder and neck muscles all tense. But Naruto looked so relaxed and winked at the blue-haired girl. Right when she though her porcelain skin had returned to its normal pale state, a soft pink rose to her cheeks once again.

Naruto knew exactly what to do. He picked up the black headphones that rested on top of the mixing table and put them around his neck. It had been maybe five minutes without music but Hinata was stressed out. Everything was supposed to be perfect, how would Sakura react to this? She was in charge and all the blame was on her if they caused trouble.

Naruto picked up a microphone and gently tapped on it to get the rest of the crowd's attention, since not everyone apparently was interested in them trying to figure out what to do with the music.

"Well hello, this is Naruto Uzumaki, your DJ for the night. I'd like to inform you that this party is getting started RIGHT NOW!" He yelled into the microphone and pressed a few buttons, sliding the nob that controlled the volume of the music up and the ball room was soon filled with slightly more _modern_ music.

At first everyone was pretty confused as to what was going on. The music was something everyone could actually dance to and the beat invited everyone to dance, even if it was just twirling around or doing something simple and tasteless like the jazz hands. It was unusual but everyone seemed to be enjoying themselves. When Hinata spotted headmistress Tsunade with a slight curve to her lips, she finally felt like she could breathe again. Naruto was doing his thing as a DJ and surprisingly was actually good at it, which was a pleasant surprise to the young woman. Naruto noticed her blunt staring and flashed her his perfect row of pearly whites.

"I knew what I was doing, don't worry!" Naruto assured the blue-haired heiress and paired his smirk with a wink to her direction.

"I know." She murmured to herself, softly smiling at the partying blond. She didn't expect him to hear her with the music blasting from the several speakers she'd placed all over the room. Somehow she always felt like she could trust him. And she did.

* * *

Update: Not dead.

Sorry for not posting, I never was satisfied with this chapter and kept writing it over and over until I just got fed up and decided to post it. Thank you for your reviews, follows and faves, also thank you for being patient with me!

❦ Goddess of Glam


	7. Chapter 7

_"Sakura?"_

Hinata's soft voice brought the nearly sleepwalking pinkette back to earth. Sakura hadn't had much to sleep last night since her and her friends were asked – more like ordered – to clean up the ballroom after the ball was over.

' _Stupid lazy faeries!' Sakura remembered thinking when the magical creatures were nowhere to be found when Tsunade announced that the ball was over. Practically it meant that the ones still at the ball would leave and go into their rooms and sleep so that the ballroom could be cleaned, but since the faeries had vanished, Sakura and her friends had been asked to clean up the whole thing._

The only problem was that when they were done, it was waay past 2am and the had to wake up at 8am for breakfast.

Sakura blinked her emerald eyes for a few times until she realized she'd been holding onto the large spoon that was used to scoop greek yoghurt in her hands for quite some time based on the curious and/or weird looks she was getting from her friends.

"Are you okay?" Hinata carefully asked Sakura, whose response was to laugh at her own actions nervously and scoop some greek yoghurt into her empty bowl. "Yeah, sorry. Just a bit drowsy."

She then proceeded to add raspberries and blueberries on top of her yoghurt, also picking out a few yummy looking strawberries.

" _Oh look, french toast!"_

And as soon as Ino pointed out the delicious treats, Sakura had to have one. She stacked a few on top of each other, dripping chocolate sauce and whipped cream on top of them. When she was happy with the masterpiece she'd created, she then proceeded to the thing she craved more than anything else.

 _Caffeine._

She wasn't a caffeine addict nor did she need a cup of coffee every morning. It was more of a social drink or an afternoon snack type of a thing, but this was the rare occasion where she felt like she was going to fall asleep as soon as she sat down if she didn't a cup.

"Sakura, get me a cup as well!" Tenten called out from behind her. Sakura turned her head to confirm that she was about to do so when she saw the girl stack bacon and eggs onto her already heaping platter.

' _Geez, that girl sure has an appetite.' Sakura chuckled to herself._

For a magical school it seemed weird to have a coffee machine preparing coffee. The faeries could just prepare some black and leave it on the breakfast table. Sakura rolled her eyes at the weirdness of her new school and reached out to pick a cup. There were lines of different kind of mugs stacked neatly on top of each other. There were large ones, medium sized ones and tiny ones which Sakura figured were for espressos. She went for the largest size and slid the black mug in her hand into the machine.

"Uhm, Ino?" Sakura called out to her friend. She was staring at the machine, which unlike she'd ever seen before. It looked like a normal coffee machine but instead of having buttons to press, it had a screen with the school logo twirling on it.

This caused the blonde to smirk and roll her blue eyes at the clearly clueless Sakura. She walked over proudly, getting to show her superiority and knowledge to the pinkette – even if it was as minor as showing her how the coffee machine worked.

"So the first thing is that you press the screen." Ino teased Sakura as she made the logo disappear with a swipe of her finger and a variety of options popped up onto the screen. But still it was no ordinary coffee machine.

"What are all of these options?" Sakura asked when staring at the different selections.  
"First you choose your coffee base, like medium roast, dark roast, that sort of thing. Then you start to specify what kind of coffee you want , your toppings, addings – it's like a starbucks but in a faerie magic laced machine. " Ino explained while pouring syrup onto her pancakes. Hinata and Tenten were nowhere to be seen so they most likely went to find a table for them.

"What makes it magical?"

"You can order basically anything you want. Coffee, tea, hot chocolate, ice tea – anything you can desire basically." Ino explained and picked up her tray of breakfast. "It also makes seasonal drinks like pumpkin spiced lattes and that kind of stuff."

Sakura felt a jolt go through her when Ino said her favorite fall time drink out loud, but settled with "ordering" a salted caramel mocha with whipped cream on top. The machine just worked it's magic – literally – and soon she had a steaming hot cup of coffee with a whipped cream heap and caramel sauce dripped on top. Sakura felt her jaw drop as she continued to be amazed by this world she was in. Ino reached a hand to close her mouth as she muttered something about being 'unladylike'.

But before Sakura could open her mouth again, Ino already knew what she was going to ask.

"Chai latte, get me one as well."

Sakura wasn't sure how Ino did it, but there was nothing to be questioned about Ino's confident yet oddly smug look on her face, so Sakura decided to just go with it. The pinkette got two more mugs and placed them in the machine and started choosing the specific type of beverage.

In the few moments Sakura had before the drinks were ready she had a look at the perfect being that was Ino Yamanaka. "How come you're not tired whatsoever and still look like you got your full 10-hour beauty sleep?"

Sakura's question amused Ino and she noticed when a smirk rose to the blonde's pink lips. Ino sighed and pulled out her wand, brushing it against her lips as if kissing it and smirking at the still so clueless pinkette.

"Magic, my dear. Magic."

Sakura couldn't help but to roll her eyes. How had she not guessed that?

"You will show me how that works." Sakura wasn't asking and Ino expected no less from her.

"Ouioui, ma chérie."

And with a pleased smile she placed the two mugs next to her own and picked up her tray trying not to spill everything on the floor. When she was finally in balance with all she had to carry, she nodded to Ino, informing her that she was ready to go and the blonde lead the way.

Unexpectedly Ino didn't budge. She stood there, looking at Sakura that was currently struggling with the heavy weight of her tray. "Ino! Can we go?" Sakura whined.

"You know, this is the perfect time to practice levitation magic." Ino smiled as she put down her own tray and once more pulled out her wand. "You remember the spell right?"

Sakura struggled, exchanging a pleading look with Ino, who then decided to help her a little. After a sigh. And an eye roll. "Just think about when Tsunade came into the ballroom and-"

"And I used the spell on the book... _volant_!" The spell came maybe a little too loud from the pinkette's mouth as they seemed to have gathered some attention to themselves. Great.

"Yeah, now get your wand and focus on the tray. And since you're still practicing DO NOT let the tray out of your mind, because if you don't focus on keeping that tray up, it will fall down in front of everyone." Ino instructed and cast a spell on her tray, which started floating and as it moved, it left green sparks floating in the air after it.

Ino smiled reassuringly as Sakura summoned her wand by calling out it's name, and pointed it towards her tray.

" _Volant._ " Sakura spoke out, remembering what Hinata told about breathing energy into the words, and with a flick of her wrist – and a flash of blue – her tray started to float just like Ino's. The feeling of accomplishment spread through her body and painted a joyful smile on her face, which caused Ino to smile too. Even if she didn't look like it, she was empathetic that way.

"Ah reminds me of my first times I tried casting spells." Ino chuckled. "You are far better than I was. Our cat levitated for three whole days before I got it down."

"Oh well, let's just wait your first flying class." Ino smirked and left Sakura mortified to the breakfast table, her tray obediently following her.

"We're having breakfast in the garden." Ino called out, snapping Sakura out of her thoughts of what could go horribly wrong if someone actually gave her a broom she was able to fly with.

Sakura then ran after and proceeded to follow her friend across the dining hall, out to the hallways, down a white marble staircase and out from an open door into a beautiful garden, her tray also following obediently behind her. She was careful not to let the flying object slip out of her mind.

When walking through the garden and seeing all it's plants, flowers and the labyrinth twice her height created by bushes shaped into walls Sakura had to restrain herself from stopping and admiring the beautiful garden. She promised herself she'd come back and explore the garden later, because if she did so now she'd either get lost or drop her tray when her mind would eventually wander off. Neither of which was a good choice.

Soon enough Sakura saw a white pergola with flowers and vines decorating it. Tenten and Hinata were already sitting there with two very familiar figures.

"Morning!" Ino chimed as she sat down onto the white u-shaped couch that surrounded a glass table, with three normal chairs on one of the long sides of the table. All four of the people already sitting around the table answered her in unison.

" _Morning."_

Sakura sat on the couch not too from Ino, who scooted over so the two would have some more space to eat their breakfast. It wasn't really necessarily, since the table was supposed to fit nearly 15 people, but Sakura didn't complain about all the space she had. It was far more enjoyable to have breakfast in the tranquil garden rather than in the crowded dining hall.

Sakura noticed Neji, who acknowledged her presence with a polite nod which she returned with a small smile. Naruto waved at the pinkette from across the table and then proceeded to stuff his mouth with everything he had on his plate. His mountain of food was even bigger than Tenten's, which was impressive.

Sakura then proceeded to pass Tenten her latte and handed Ino hers.

"Chai latte! How did you know?" Tenten's happily surprised tone made Sakura smirk.

"Lucky guess." Sakura answered secretively and gave Ino a wink which she responded with a smirk and a sip from her own latte.

"So, how was hostessing your first ball?" Naruto asked with a mouth full of food from across the table.

"I'm not sure. " Sakura confessed, taking a sip of her hot beverage that warmed her palms, which were protectively wrapped around the ceramic.

"Last night was fun but it was also so much work and attention on me, so I don't know how to feel about it. But now that it's over, I can go from being in the spotlight to back to the boring old, not important me. I can go back to studying and learning."

Sakura felt good about not having so much attention on herself since there was nothing to fuss over, but her words made Ino snicker. Sakura's brows rose up from curiosity but surprisingly Tenten, Hinata, Naruto and even Neji were also staring at her in need of a further explanation.

Ino cleared her throat. "All I mean is that you enter this school, this world as a normal girl and what you might've been before. But now you're the trainee of the headmistress herself who is one of the most powerful witches in the world. You have this mysterious relative that gives you a birthright to one of the most magical and powerful objects in the world, whose nobel - magical - blood runs through your veins. You can't exactly just expect things to go back to how they were."

Her words left a silence amongst the group of friends. Nobody touched their food, not even Naruto who'd been stuffing his face a few seconds earlier. He proceeded to swallow what was left in his mouth, before speaking.

"Excuse me, but what is this all about and what?" Naruto questioned very loudly, waving his cutlery in the air dangerously. Hinata, who was sitting next to Naruto, calmly lowered the blond's hands, since waving around a knife wasn't exactly safe. This caused Naruto to sheepishly smile at the now slightly blushing Hinata.

First Sakura was confused, but then she got it. None of the guys knew about her unusual powers or anything about what she'd found out about herself in the last, what, three days she'd spent at Luna Nova. Only the girls knew. And, well, Tsunade. And probably Shizune since she was not only a professor but also Tsunade's most trusted assistant.

"Uhm." Sakura fidgeted in her seat, not really knowing what she was about to explain. "This stays between us, I don't want the whole school to find out." Sakura stated, earning an affirmative nod from Neji and a million nods from the curious blond, which curved Sakura's lips into a small smile.

Sakura swallowed and fixed her gaze on the garden than rather than on her friends since she wasn't really sure how to tell a story she didn't know if she believed herself.

"So." The pinkette started, sliding her fingers against the ripped material of her jeans.

"I have – I mean had – no relatives that are of magical blood. I didn't grow up around magic."

Sakura started to explain as she picked up her coffee mug, feeling the warmth against her hands. It comforted her.

"But apparently I have a relative, who is of magical blood, of noble blood – as weird as that sounds. And that blood connection gave me the ability to kind of", Sakura couldn't exactly explain what had happened that time with Tsunade, "link with this wand."

Sakura took a sip of her drink after she was finished, not really because she felt like drinking her coffee, but to distract herself from the curious eyes of the two boys now staring at her.

"Well I mean I had this crystal, a family heirloom, that I've carried as a necklace since I was a little girl. Then I came here and it turned out to be a part of the sorcerer's stone and it joined with the wand Tsunade gave me and boom, here I am having no clue as to who I actually am or what I actually can do with my all so powerful wand and this woman keeps whispering spells to me and I just have no idea what's going on!"

Sakura really had to take a breath after what she'd just said. It wasn't because of what she said, but because she spat out the longest sentence she's ever said in her life. And, well, a little bit because of what she said. Who wouldn't be?!

This time her words left the whole table speechless. Ino, Hinata and Tenten already knew about the crystal, and the relative thing but this 'hearing spells out of thin air' thing kind came to them as a shock. It meant that Sakura had a deeper connection to the wand than just being able to use it.

"We did kind of already know you were special." Neji spoke, finally breaking the oppressive silence.

"Sakura. You do realize that this means that you are linked to someone – as in a person – who has either been an owner of that wand or that crystal?" Hinata finally spoke out, which caused Sakura's eyes to widen.

"So someone is actually talking to me. As in speaking to me through my connection with the wand?" the pinkette asked and Hinata answered with a simple, yet very informative nod. This caused Sakura to place her fingers on her forehead and massage her temples as if she was having a headache.

"Why does my life have to be sooo messed up?" Sakura groaned and shoved a spoonful of greek yoghurt into her mouth.

"But that's great Sakura! You have an adventure set out for you!" Naruto happily told the pinkette, but she hadn't exactly had an adventure in mind.

"Thanks Naruto but I just need to figure this thing out. Right now I can't even use magic properly so let's not get carried away." Another spoonful found it's way to Sakura's mouth.

"Well now I know who I ask for protection when I piss off little miss perfect over here." Naruto didn't even have to point out who he was talking about before Ino lashed out, slamming her hands on the table and shouting at the top of her lungs about how idiotic and immature Naruto was.

"Well that didn't exactly take long." Tenten tiredly pointed out and finished the rest of her chai latte.

"Where is Shikamaru?" Hinata asked Ino, which immediately calmed the blonde down – and Hinata knew it would.

"What did you say, dear?" Ino asked Hinata, her voice calm and oddly high in pitch.

"I asked if you knew where Shikamaru is. He's not here and I didn't see him having breakfast inside either." Hinata knew she was just trying to distract the blonde girl from shouting on the top of her lungs till she would pass out, but since she was curious and there was one thing that Ino would always know something about, why not ask her.

"Shikamaru? Oh, he's probably still asleep. I bet he'll just come and grab a coffee before heading out to classes." Ino sat back down and started taking apart her tower of pancakes.

"Classes?" Sakura asked from the guys. You're going to classes?"

"Yup, same classes as you since our teachers think we should widen our perspective of the world." Naruto explained in between taking bites of the sandwich he made for himself.

"Not to speak bad about the oh so appreciated Appleton academy, but your classes are boring and your professors even more boring, so maybe you'll actually learn something this time." Tenten pointed out, earning a glare from Neji.

"You know I'm right." Tenten returned his glare with sticking her tongue out playfully. Sakura didn't know what the deal with those two were but she sure as hell wasn't going to intrude in it.

"Now that the cat is out of the bag, could we please talk about something else?" the pinkette asked with a mix of frustration and confusion. She was going to need a lot more caffeine to have a conversation that basically wrecked everything she'd though of herself and her background.

Neji and Tenten continued their bickering, which seemed to be a normal thing for the two. Ino had somehow gotten a fashion magazine from somewhere, but considering the fact that she was now amongst people who used magic in their everyday lives, it wasn't exactly that odd. Sakura reached for one of the strawberries she'd picked up earlier and took a bite out of it.

"Where's Uchiha anyways?"

"Here I am."

Sakura felt shivers going through her whole body when she heard the smooth voice of the guy standing not too far away from her. Of course when she brought him up, he just had to be there. But Sakura kept her cool and with a smug smile painted on her lips she turned to face the onyx eyed boy.

"Not that I care, of course."

Sasuke chuckled in response to her words and sat down on one of the three single chairs, next to Neji and opposite to Ino.

"Of course." Sasuke agreed, running his right hand through his messy ink black hair and shoving it back to the pocket of his pants.

"Looks like teme had some fun last night!" Naruto laughed, pointing at the now pissed off Uchiha. "Was it the girl who I saw in the hallway this mor-"

"Shut up Naruto." Sasuke interrupted his friend in the midst of his sentence, which of course pissed Naruto off. He just didn't need to hear the rest of the sentence or his comments about him having company over while the others were at the ball.

"Geez, always so touchy." Naruto sneered, continuing to eat the stack of waffles he had in front of him. "Anyways, Sakura was just telling us about her crazy powers and her f-"  
"Naruto!" Sakura yelled.

Naruto couldn't even finish his sentence before he felt something being thrown at him. Sakura had thrown a strawberry at him, which had landed right in between his eyebrows and was now dripping down his face. Realization hit the poor blond too late, as he understood that Sakura had told them not to share the information of her confusing situation and what they'd talked about.

Sakura saw Naruto's apologetic face and realized that yelling at the loudmouth wouldn't help the situation at all, but it didn't do anything to her frustration. She brought her thumb and index finger to rub the sides of the bridge of her nose as if trying to avoid a headache.

"But can't we tell him, I mean, who can he tell? He barely talks!" Naruto tried to reason with Sakura, who understood the blond's point. Not that she knew if Sasuke would even care about something happening in her life, but she saw why Naruto wanted to tell his best friend.

"Hm?" Sasuke turned to face Sakura, his face as ignorant as ever. Emerald clashed with onyx and Sakura didn't know if she was angered by his ignorance or happy that he didn't even seem to care.

"We were just talking about last night's ball." Sakura plainly stated lifting her coffee mug to her lips to have a sip of coffee, eyeing her friends as to just go with her version of the story. She didn't feel like explaining the whole situation they'd been in that led into the conversation they'd had, so she plainly changed the subject.

"You should've seen her teme! The whole school is talking about her!" Naruto's words came as a surprise to Sakura. She knew she'd gotten attention because she was the hostess of the ball and because she was applauded during her descending and whatever, but she didn't know people were still talking about it.

"What?" Sakura asked. She didn't question what Naruto had said, she had no reason to, but she hadn't heard a thing. Or maybe she was just too tired when walking into the cafeteria that she hadn't paid attention to her surroundings.

"Oh yeah." Tenten snickered. "I saw Karin this morning. She seemed to be quite upset by all the attention you got."

Sakura couldn't help but laugh at the mental image of the redhead acting like the brat she was, screaming at her friends and complaining how everything was unfair.

"Yeah but that's just Karin." Ino waved her hand towards Tenten, as if she had something way more interesting to say. "I got like ten guys asking about you last night when you were talking to headmistress Tsunade. Seriously, you've climbed up the social hierarchy faster than anyone I've seen before."

Sakura didn't know how to respond to Ino, other than letting an awkward 'wow' slip out of her mouth.

"I'm sorry to have disturbed the amount of attention you got." Sakura's teasing words caused Ino to laugh and the magazine she'd been holding onto disappeared into thin air.

"Don't worry, I think I can handle a few stray lambs."

"Don't call us lambs!" Naruto protested, crossing his arms over his chest.

Ino rolled her eyes. "Well you're more of a cat than anything."

The surroundings of the table was filled with lighthearted laughter after Ino's comment, which resulted in Naruto sulking and everyone else laughing – even Sasuke.

"We should get going if we want to get to classes in time!" Hinata pointed out, showing the time on the screen of her phone. They had roughly ten minutes to get to their class, which seemed like a lot, but considering the size of Luna Nova, they could easily just wander around trying to find their classroom for more than that.

* * *

I'm sorry for not posting, apparently word and google docs both hate me so I had to write this chapter from the scratch three times! I had intended this chapter to be longer but I just don't have the patience right now to write more. Also you can clearly see I was suuuuper hungry when writing this. But I have an idea for the next chapters so be on the look out for them!

❧ Goddess of Glam


	8. Chapter 8

Soo, I never really write these things on my chapters since I find that people never really read them and why write something when nobody is going to read it anyway. But today I'm going to make an exception. I have basically no excuse for being so late with everything, all my stories and just _l_ _ife_. It's not that I don't have time to write, it's just that I'm not happy with the content I'm producing. It takes me multiple attempts to create one chapter and that's my writing style - it's cool. The only reason I'm not really happy with myself about it is that I just can't get chapters out. This was supposed to go up a few days ago but then something was going on with fanfiction servers and I just kind of left it there. So now I have a brand new chapter for you that I've been thinking of writing for a while now and I'm already planning on my next chapter so stay tuned for that and please enjoy! 3

Also I'd like to respond one of the reviews I recently got.

Kanin98: This is so weird, because I grew up also watching winx club. I never even thought that they were similar in any way but when I started thinking about it - oh my god - it has so many similarities! I mean my image of this story and where it's heading is obviously different from winx but I actually found that pretty funny. Maybe it's just my unconscious just taking inspiration from winx, I don't know - I found it amusing. Anyways, thanks for the review and hope you enjoy the way the story is proceeding! 3

* * *

Sakura limped into the classroom for their second lesson of the day – history of magic. Sakura winced in pain as she sat down next to Tenten, Ino sitting down next to her and Hinata, naturally, next to her.

' _This sure proves what flying really is – a pain in the ass!' Sakura thought to herself when feeling the sting of the pain slowly fade away._

She had bruises all over her and probably a few twigs in her hair after her first flying lesson. Sakura didn't expect to be good at flying, she was a beginner with everything magical, but you'd think she could manage one class without almost being sent into the infirmary wing. Of course her friends excelled at flying, Tenten being the best flyer she'd ever seen – not that she'd seen many. But the main point was that Sakura was _horrible_ at it.

* * *

The courtyard, where their lesson was being held, wasn't far away from the dining hall at all. Their lesson had started with each of them getting handed out a broom. They were "starter brooms" as their flying instructor called them. Sakura didn't exactly understand the difference at first but she didn't understand most about her new life anyway so she wasn't bothered by it. They were plain wooden brooms that nearly reached Sakura's shoulder in height, but apparently were easier to control and learn how to fly on compared to regular brooms.

"Think of it like a bicycle with training wheels. You first have to grasp the whole consept before you can actually start flying." Their flying instructor Miss Mitarashi explained.

It had started out really simple. Everyone was to pull out their wands and recite a flight spell. With time it would get easier, so you wouldn't need a wand for the cantation and finally you wouldn't need even the spell – you'd be able to do it without even thinking about it.

But Sakura needed all the help she could get.

" _Tia freyre!"_ Sakura yelled at the broom. Her face was as pink as her hair and she was waving her wand around like a crazy person. Hinata and Ino were already sitting on their brooms, which were calmly floating in the air and Tenten was long gone speeding off with her own broom. From far away you could hear her shouting and complaining how slow the starter brooms were. It made Ino giggle and it would have made Hinata too if she wasn't so concentrated on the frustrated pinkette.

"Sakura, dear, if you just-" Hinata tried before she was interrupted by the stubborn pinkette who hadn't lifted herself from the ground after 20 minutes of vigorous trying.

" _Tia freyre!"_

"I wonder if you-"

" _Tia freyre!"_

"Just let me-"

" _TIA FREYRE!"_ Sakura screamed and whipped her wand in the air so hard that it almost slipped from her hand. And still nothing happened. There was a sliver of a second when Sakura thought she felt something but the sensation disappeared as fast as it had appeared. Sakura wasn't far from nearly breaking the broom in her hands. Hinata was trying to calm the frustrated Sakura down with her calm voice, but the pinkette was way too mad at the piece of wood to hear her.

" _You won't be able to do it if you're screaming."_

Sakura snapped out of her thoughts and saw their flying instructor nearing her. She had her hands behind her back and was watching the pinkette closely.

"Miss Miratashi, it doesn't listen to me!" Sakura explained clearly frustrated about the whole ordeal.

The purple haired woman started laughing at the pinkette, which made Sakura's frustration shift into slight confusion.

"Neither would you listen to someone if you were being screamed at."

Sakura was even more confused now. "You're talking about the broom as if it were a person?"

Miss Mitarashi smiled. "Yes, kind of. Brooms do have personalities, but not many show that they have them. Yours seems to be as stubborn and fierce as you, but you need to treat it calmly and with respect to even be able to lift yourself off the ground."

Sakura shifted her gaze from her teacher to the broom she was holding in her hand. It looked like a mundane object, but in the world where witches and magic existed, brooms could probably have feelings and that most likely wasn't the weirdest thing she'd encounter. In that day.

Miss Mitarashi turned to Hinata and Ino. "Girls, there are still a few girls who haven't gotten off the ground yet. Since this obviously isn't your first time flying, could you go help them out while I talk with Miss Haruno."

They girls had heard many things about the bundle their instructor was. She was said to be quirky and relatable but also that she was loud, stubborn and would kick ass if she felt like it. But that hadn't been the case. Tenten was a wild spirit who did what she wanted and even she would listen to miss Miratashi. Ino saw someone just as loud as her and Hinata saw a calm and caring figure in her. She was definitely going to be one of their favorite professors.

Hinata and Ino looked at each other and responded with a smile. "Yes miss Miratashi."

"Lose the formalities girls, just call me Anko!" she yelled after the two girls who flew not too far to help a group of four girls struggling with their brooms.

"God I hate formal titles.." Sakura heard her mutter before she turned back to the pinkette.

Then the purple haired flight instructor turned to examine Sakura and her broom closely without saying anything. Sakura didn't know exactly what to say in the situation, so she just stayed quiet until her nerves couldn't stand the silence.

"Soo what am I doing wrong?" Sakura broke the silence carefully trying to spark a conversation.

Miss Mitarashi hummed in response. "Since you don't exactly have a good grasp on spells and magic yet, I can see how it doesn't translate well to an object with a personality. But let's see, I'll try to guide you through it and we'll see how it goes."

"Okay, Miss-"

"Anko. Just call me Anko." Her response was fast and had a slight irritated tone to it but the smile that followed was friendly.

"Alright, Anko."

"Now, take a firm grip of your broom and hold it beside you. Show it that you are the one in control, you are about to fly it and it is not going to fly you. It will stop resisting and give in when you know you're in control." Anko instructed Sakura, placing her hands on her hips.

Sakura followed Anko's instructions, bringing the object by her side. The broom felt weird in her hand, she didn't actually believe she could fly on it. Maybe that was the problem she'd been having – psyching herself out.

"Now say the spell with your wand out. Pronounce the spell clearly and calmly, just like I taught you and it should work out just fine."

Sakura took a deep breath and cleared her mind from her previous attemps. She took a tight grip from her wand and tapped it on the wooden surface of the broom.

" _Tia freyre"_

Suddenly Sakura felt the broom move in her hand. Her gaze moved to the piece of wood that was now floating by itself. She was amazed and proud of herself. A triumphant smile rose to her lips as she yelled at her friends.

"Look Hinata and Ino! I did it!" Sakura happily exclaimed and Anko grinned. There was never going to be a witch that couldn't fly on her watch.

"That's great Sakura, now mount your broom. It moves with you commanding it and it does what you want it to do. Just don't worry about it too much." Anko further explained and watched Sakura carefully throw her other leg over the broom, holding tightly onto it as if it were to run away from her.

And it floated, lifting Sakura off the ground with it.

"Good! You're doing great Sakura! Now try and fly a little bit, let's not do anything extreme today since many of you are doing it for the first time-"

Anko's sentence was interrupted by Sakura's broom uncontrollably shooting forwards with the pinkette letting out a cry of help. Anko and all of the other students in the class stared with wide eyes at the pink haired witch that was spinning, flying up and down and around the courtyard at lightning speed. Sakura tightened her grip on the broom as she tried to shift it's direction.

"Slow down Sakura!" she heard Anko yell as her broom flew past the other witches, knocking a few down from their brooms. The broom went through bushes, leafy treetops, almost ran over faeries and nearly crashed into a few trees but bumping Sakura into them. Sakura's pink locks were flying around everywhere, her vision blurred from the wind in her eyes and she was sure she'd gotten a few scratches from flying through a beautiful yet oh-so-painful rose bush.

Sakura tried to command her broom in any way she could. In the chaos of her broom flying uncontrollably in bizarre shapes she tried thinking of the broom stopping. Didn't work. She tried commanding the broom with words. Didn't work. She tried to use magic on it. Didn't work. It was like her broom was determined to shake her off and Sakura didn't know what to do. It was like the worst second cousin of bull riding and Sakura did not excell at that either.

Tenten flew back to the group of witches watching Sakura.

"Is she alright? Because either she's a badass flyer or something very painful is going to happen soon." Tenten stated upon arriving to her friends.

"I hope Sakura can get control of her broom in time.." Hinata whispered to her two friends.

"Pinky you better make it out alive of this!" Ino screamed at her roommate.

Then the broom flipped around in mid air and Sakura felt herself being thrown off her broom. She still managed to keep her grip on the flying object and was left hanging from it as she struggled to get back on with the broom now bouncing around even worse than before.

Suddenly she felt herself loosing grip of her broom and her body flying away from the wooden contraption. Sakura's body flew high up into the air. Her body twirled and vaulted in the air, stomach turning and vision blurring. She felt her magic wand appear in her hand as she squeezed her eyes shut, waiting for the impact.

Suddenly Sakura heard a voice. It was very soft, very silent but she knew what it was. She'd heard that voice before and it was trying to tell her something. She wasn't quite sure what she'd heard but she knew what to do.

" _Pluma procidens!"_

Sakura felt energy flow from her as soon as she incanted the spell. She didn't feel herself dropping down onto the ground anymore but flowing through the air like a leaf.

Sakura opened her eyes and was mesmerized by the fact that she was clamly descending through the air down onto the ground. She felt light as a feather and magic flowed through her body, she couldn't help but smile. Soon her feet touched the ground and the lightness left her body, magic slowly disappearing from her. She was left with a weird feeling. And a bunch of people running towards her, her friends reaching her first.

" _Wow! How did you do that?"_

" _Oh my god, are you okay?"_

" _Sakura!"_

" _That was awesome!"_

The pinkette was overrun with people swarming around her but the group of witches soon calmed down as their flight instructor pushed through to get to Sakura.

"Are you alright, Sakura?" Anko asked, protectively placing her hand on the pinkette's shoulder.

"I'm fine, just a little banged up." Sakura responded, brushing tangled up pink locks away from her face.

"Well atleast you've got some spirit. I'll make a great flyer out of you." Anko cheered and patted the pinkette's back, causing Sakura to let out a strangled laugh.

'Well she's definitely not like other professors here' Sakura thought as the group of witches started scattering.

"Class is over for today, return your brooms and you're free to go but if I see any of you messing around I'll make you clean and fix every single broom in Luna Nova. With _no magic_." Anko announced and students slightly cautious of their instructor's warning cleared out from the courtyard.

* * *

"Flying is terrible, why does anyone fly anywhere?" Sakura groaned after thinking about her first contact with flying. Their classroom that was pretty much a smaller version of the academy's auditorium. Their boring old leech of a professor hadn't arrived yet so all the students were focused on chatting with each other and not really focusing on what was actually going on in the classroom.

"You did great for a first time! And check out that spell you used to save yourself. Nice reflexes." Tenten cheered but Sakura wasn't impressed. She had bruises all over her and a huge headache from her broom knocking her against a big oak. Hinata had tried her best at healing magic but it was best if the school nurse would take a look at her later.

"Where did you learn a feather-falling spell anyway?" Ino huffed, crossing her arms over her chest.

Sakura's interest spiked. "So that's the spell I used?"

Hinata, who was sitting on the other side of Ino leaned in on the small table in front of them so she could see Sakura and Tenten as well.

"Yes and you mastered it in one try. You really are a natural even with your whole magic situation going on." Hinata answered.

Sakura pouted. "But I still can't fly."

Tenten's nerves got the best of her and she smacked Sakura's side, which caused the pinkette to welp.

"What was that about?" Sakura shouted, rubbing the spot Tenten had hit her on.

"Stop that! Don't be such a downer, you got off the ground! There were still girls who didn't even get their brooms to fly." Tenten huffed back to the pinkette.

Sakura realised that Tenten was correct. There were girls that were just as beginners at flying as she was and hadn't previously had any opportunities to learn how to fly like some students. All this time she'd beated herself up for not knowing how to do something as basic as flying or commanding a broom – but she did fly. Not that she was good at it but she did get herself off the ground and that was enough.

"I guess you're right. I didn't do so badly after all." Sakura felt her mood brighten up just a bit, even a small smile rose to her lips.

But it sure didn't last long.

"Watch out, it's miss bitch." Ino coughed to her friends and they all pretended not to notice the red haired girl entering the classroom with her two minions, loudly chatting about how hot the boys of Appleton academy were.

Sakura felt the banging at the back of her head just get worse as she and her friends were trying to talk about something so they looked like they were having a full on conversation so Karin would just walk past them. But today wasn't their day.

"Oh look girls", Karin stated to her friends, "it's that freak of nature witch that can't fly."

Karin's nasal and high-pitched voice didn't only annoy Sakura but it was making her already existing headache even worse. Sakura was all ready to respond to Karin's ill attempt at public embarrasment but Ino beat her to it as she almost flew out of her seat.

"Oh shut up, Karin. It took you a year to get your broom off the ground even with you growing up around magic, Sakura did it in twenty minutes with no previous attempts. You _still_ suck at flying after that and Sakura's first flight had more skill than all of yours combined. Nice try bitch, you're nothing compared to her, to me or to any of us." Ino sneered at the pissed red head.

"You stupid bitch, I wasn't even talking ABOUT you. Could you be more pathetic?" Karin's words made Ino's eyes light up on fire and her blood boil. She was ready to jump out like a wild cat and rip Karin to tiny pieces, but Sakura stood up beside her friend and put her hand on Ino's shoulder to calm her.

Tenten cracked up. "Look who's talking about pathetic!"

But before Karin could even open her mouth, Sakura stopped her.

"Leave Karin, nobody is interested in you or your bullshit here." Sakura's voice was calm, she didn't really want to show any emotion to Karin because that would just excite her as Karin clearly came in looking for trouble.

Karin looked like she almost got a little offended by Sakura. "Why you little! Of course everyone is interested about me, I'm the most important witch in this school. Just because headmistress for some obscure reason chose you as her mentee, I mean, that was just pure luck and you know that spot should've been mine – but that doesn't make you better than me, more beautiful than me or more important than me."

' _Sheesh, she sure thinks she's important' Sakura thought while watching the redhead shout at her. 'But I still don't get what's her deal with me..'_

"Even the guys at Appleton academy think I'm hotter. I've heard you had a little run in with Uzumaki, Hyuga, Nara and", Karin shoved a rather over-exaggerated in-love sigh in the middle of her sentence before continuing," Uchiha. You don't have anything in common with them, so don't you dare think you have any chances with any of them. Also, Sasuke Uchiha is mine and he wouldn't even bother with someone as ugly as you."

"Look who's talking about ugly." Sakura snickered with a slight smirk on her lips, copying Tenten's earlier comment. This caused Sakura's friends and a few other people sitting close by to laugh – mostly at Karin.

"Freak of nature!" Karin called out, pointing her finger at Sakura. But Sakura didn't even flinch, she was way too tired for Karin's bullshit and she was causing her headache to get worse with every time she opened her mouth.

"Shut it. The only freak of nature around here is that god awful face of yours. Now leave, you're boring and giving me a headache." Sakura waved her hand at Karin, motioning her to leave with her two friends that were now squeaking petty comebacks at Sakura but the pinkette had no interest in the two so why would she listen.

"Oh you bitch will be put in your place when we beat you in tomorrow's treasure hunt." Karin confidently stated, leaving with her friends and started clmbing up the stairs. "And don't get near Sasuke or you'll be sorry." Karin spoke out as they passed the girls and took their places in the classroom as far away from Sakura as possible. And god were the girls happy about that.

Sakura sat back down on her seat and rolled her eyes, glad that Karin knew when to leave. But something about what Karin said bothered Sakura.

"God, I almost want to throw Sakura on Sasuke just to get on Karin's nerves." Ino hissed as the red head was finally out of their sights.

Sakura's eyes grew to the size of a dinner plate. "Don't you fucking dare have any ideas about me and that bastard with a weird haircut."

Ino waved innocently her hands in front of her and assured that she would do no such thing.

' _Even though it would totally piss Karin off..' Ino thought as she saw Sakura slowly calm down._

"What did she say about a treasure hunt?" Hinata completely changed the tone of the conversation as she asked her friends from the thing that had bothered her in Karin's final "warning" – if you could even call it that.

Ino's brows suddenly furrowed, which meant that she was thinking. But even she wasn't able to give a clear answer and she knew practically everything about things like this.

"It's not a tradition of any kind, I have no idea where she got that from.." Ino said after a short while of pondering. Tenten didn't know anything about it either and Sakura couldn't possibly know anything so the girls were now confused by Karin's words. Soon the whole class was talking about the alleged treasure hunt after witnessing the scene between Karin and the girls – and nobody seemed to know anything about it.

Soon the chatter was interrupted by the sound of the classroom's door loudly closing. Everyone's eyes went to the slender, dark haired woman who clearly wasn't their history of magic professor. Sakura didn't know who she was but recognized her as one of the professors from the welcoming ceremony.

"Who is she?" Sakura whispered a question to her friends but based on the looks on their faces and the lack of responses given they didn't have a clue either.

"She's beautiful.." Ino's caribbean blue eyes where almost attached to the beautiful fair-skinned woman standing at the front of the classroom. "I've got to ask what conditioner she uses."

"Shh!" Hinata hushed the blonde next to her.

"I see you've heard about the event that's taking place tomorrow." The woman that had walked into the classroom stated. Her red eyes swept the classroom filled with students and saw their confusion as to why she was there.

One student lifted up her hand and stood up. "Excuse me but where is our professor?"

Sakura saw a smile rise up to the professor's lips and a glimpse in her red eyes. "Your previous professor has been summoned elsewhere for the time being and I will be taking over this class. You can refer to me as professor or miss Kurenai."

She managed to answer everyone's questions in the two sentences she spoke. A silence fell in the classroom, nobody spoke. They had nothing to ask and nobody felt to need to say anything. One girl in the back row coughed and it echoed in the classroom. There was no tension, that's not why everyone was silent. Sakura was pretty sure it was because everyone was in awe of the new professor. Not only was she confident and well spoken, but she was absolutely gorgeous with her dark hair and bright red eyes. She was a major change from their previous professor and a major improvement.

After a while miss Kurenai opened her mouth again. "My methods of teaching don't include reading dusty books in silence or you listening to me lecture. That's not how you'll learn and I find that very boring to do."

Sakura was really liking their new professor. She'd never liked being lectured to and miss Kurenai was really making history of magic seem like an interesting subject. Also after their first lesson with the leech she'd take any other lesson plan offered.

"I see most of you are first year students but I know that you shouldn't all be treated as beginners, because you are not all just that. That's why me, a few professors and the headmistress have prepared a little test for you. The treasure hunt. Your scores will determine your starting level as a witch and we will proceed off of that. Some of you will be beginners and some will be more advanced, we'll see tomorrow."

"I like her." Ino whispered to Sakura and Sakura answered with a nod. She most likely wouldn't fall asleep in Kurenai's classes since they hadn't even done anything and she was already interested more in the subject than before.

"Yeah, she's seems really nice." Hinata added, watching miss Kurenai pull out her wand. She gave the classroom's chalkboard a gentle tap with it and golden text started appearing on the dark surface.

Miss Kurenai cleared her throat and pointed her wand towards the board. "Now we'll go through some basics for tomorrow. As you know history of magic isn't only about studying the historical events of witches and magic, but it's about understanding the basics of magic and foundations of magic. You will learn about magic and how to use it in this course, other courses and professors will then pick up and start to teach you specialized magic like white magic, culinary magic and alchemy."

"Luna Nova is an old castle built around the magical power of our sorcerer's stone. It's also a place where the leylines cross, which just adds to the history. There are tunnels under our academy that haven't been visited in decades, centuries even. Tomorrow you will be divided into teams and you will go under Luna Nova and find treasures there. The more special the item you bring back, the more points your team scores. The further down you go, the more special treasures you'll find. But it won't be just that easy. There are monsters and you will be faced with puzzles you will need to solve. You are allowed and you will need to use all of your skills tomorrow and you will have today to prepare for tomorrow. Teams will be revealed tomorrow before the hunt begins and further details will be revealed tomorrow."

* * *

"This is awesome!" Tenten exclaimed as excitedly jumped after Kurenai had let them out of class. She was pumped and everyone could see it. Sakura knew how energetic the girl could get but this amount of energy seemed even slightly dangerous.

"Not only do we have this day off, all of tomorrow's classes are also cancelled and we get to compete in a treasure hunt. And we will totally win it." Tenten pumped her fist into the air as they made their way through the student filled corridors.

"Tenten watch out, you'll punch someone if you keep doing that!" Hinata squeaked after the brunette almost hit someone and then her. Tenten turned to her with an apologizing face and murmured an apology to the blue-haired girl who responded to it with a smile.

"It's okay." Hinata responded to Tenten, whose face lit up again after having her apology accepted.

"Just remember that there's no guarantee we will all be in the same team." Ino pointed out. This calmed Tenten down, her cheerful energy slowly disappearing. She pouted and kicked air, her brows furrowed together.

"It'll suck if we don't get to be in the same team." Tenten huffed and crossed her arms over her chest. It was true, they were so excited about working as a team and the chance that they could be separated into different teams ruined the element of friendship and teamwork for them.

"If we end up in different teams then we'll just do our best." Hinata tried cheering her friends up, closing up a book she'd been reading the whole day. Sakura saw the title written on the front of the book as Hinata hugged the small object.

' _Metamorphosis magic and how to use it… why is Hinata reading that? I don't remember us having metamorphosis magic in any of our courses..' Sakura wondered as she studied the plain dark blue book in Hinata's arms._

But before Sakura could ask her about it, Ino interrupted her thoughs with her signature mischievous laughter.

"No, if we end up in different teams everyone's aim is to beat Karin's ass." Ino snickered and all four girls bursted out into a heartful bundle of laughter.

"Hey girls, what should we do now? I mean, we don't have school for today and lunch isn't for an hour or two. We should probably prepare for tomorrow, right?" The pinkette asked after the laughter slowly died down, everyone feeling better after laughing for a minute or two.

"We should probably go up to our room and make a game-plan. Kurenai said that we should use all our abilities and that means more than just wand-magic." Ino looked at Hinata, who had again opened up her book of metamorphosis magic and was now flicking through the pages as if she was looking for something.

"Hinata, you still drabble with potions - right?" Ino asked with a glint in her eye – that meant she definitely had a plan in her mind.

* * *

❦ Goddess of Glam


	9. Chapter 9

I have no excuse. Please forgive me and enjoy the extra long chapter I wrote for you.

* * *

It was almost dinner time when the four girls finally got back to their room after they'd spent the rest of the day preparing for the treasure hunt that would be taking place the next day. The large, mahogany coffee table that was placed right in the middle of their sofas and armchairs was now filled with all sorts of stuff: piles of books, bottles of all sorts, herbs and other little stuff and things that combined into a large mess.

"Do we really need all of these books?" Sakura sceptically asked while eyeing the piles of different coloured books that somehow were all very important for them to get, according to Ino at least. Considering that their own living room already had hundreds if not thousands of books, did they really need more just for tomorrow's events?

Ino let out a loud 'hmph' as she crossed her arms over her chest, lifting her chin up proudly. "But of course we do. These are all necessary for my plan to work."

"You haven't told us your plan!" Tenten tiredly pointed out and slouched over to one of their sofas, crashing on to it. "Could you _please_ just let us in on your little scheme so that we're all on the same page?"

"Fine, fine." Ino complied, pointing to one of the three piles of books. "The three piles are for different stuff. One for magic, one for potions and one is for creatures we might encounter. We should have enough books about different treasures and magical objects in here that we didn't have to bother carrying them all the way from the library."

Curious to see what exactly they had chosen, Sakura picked up one of the potion books and slid her fingers against its fabric-covered back.

"The basics of potions volume 1" The pinkette read out loud as she began to flip the pages of the navy blue book.

"Wit-sharpening potion…dreamless sleep potion...fire breathing potion.." She mumbled as her fingers flipped the rough pages of the book that was now even more interesting than before. "Wow this is amazing!"

Hinata smiled warmly to the pinkette, who was completely fascinated by the book in her hands. Her newly found curiosity was adorable in a way, she reminded Hinata of herself when she'd first been given a potion book.

"What potions do you want?" Hinata directed her question towards Ino as she picked up a few of the books, examining the lists of potions that were printed on the first page. "Agility enhancing for starters, I'm guessing?"

Ino firmly nodded, determination gleaming in her sapphire eyes. "Yes and night vision. Possibly even some more if we decide to go that route."

Hinata carefully listened to her friend's words and continued to examine the books. "Well night vision and agility will be easy and quick, but poisons and stuff like that will take a few hours."

The blue haired witch picked up a few herbs and containers filled with different coloured powders, closely looking at the labels. Sakura had finished flipping through the potion book and was now mesmerized by Hinata, who was closely studying the different ingredients with another potion book firmly planted on her lap. She was as concentrated on the subject as she had been earlier that day.

* * *

Sakura was in awe once they visited the laboratories. The laboratories were where the potions classes would be held, once they'd get those courses. She and Hinata had departed from their other two friends, who stayed behind in the library to grab some more books, even after Hinata had shyly suggested that they probably had enough already. On the other hand, their mission was to gather some ingredients for potions that weren't the easiest ones to get. Luckily they had been given full access to the school's potion supplies and were apparently the only ones who thought of raiding the classrooms and using the privilege that they were given.

They entered one of the few laboratories the school was equipped with. It was a large, bright room with a high ceiling. On one end of the room was the teacher's desk and chalkboard, but the students wouldn't sit like they would in the other classrooms she'd seen. This classroom had long, stone tables that had been divided into working stations. Sakura guessed that it was where the students would spend their time during class, since there most likely would be more interactive learning rather than listening to lectures.

"Wait, why are there more than one laboratory? It's not like we're all going to be in potions class at the same time.." Sakura wondered, looking around the classroom. There were spots for about two dozen students, which was just about the same amount as a normal classroom had. She didn't expect Hinata to warmly laugh at her question, which once again made her feel like she should've known something she didn't.

"Well when you have students mixing up all kinds of potions, there are bound to be some casualties." She kindly explained, which made Sakura think that she would most definitely be the cause of at least one explosion.

"So at least one is always under maintenance. The reason why all of them are in use now is that the school year has just started and there hasn't been any time for anything catastrophic to happen."

"Ah.." Sakura nodded in agreement, as they walked through the classroom. "That makes sense."

One whole wall was dedicated to cauldrons of all different sizes, shapes and materials with the larger ones placed on the bottom shelves and the smallest on the top. Even if Sakura had a stool to stand on, she most likely wouldn't have reached the highest row of the small cauldrons.

' _Eh, that's what magic is for..' Sakura reminded herself as she continued to examine the room with newly found curiosity._

The pinkette couldn't help herself. She had to see everything, circle the classroom at least three times and ask Hinata about everything she saw.

"What's this, Hinata?" She enthusiastically asked and pointed to a wide glass container with shiny liquid inside that almost looked like someone had ground up stars. The fact that the bottles and containers near it had labels like 'unicorn hair', 'mermaid scales'and 'fairydust' just added to the fascination.

"That's moondew." The blue haired girl patiently answered as she closely compared two purple liquids in her hands that looked exactly the same to Sakura. Hinata was standing in the doorway of the ingredient storeroom. It resembled a medium-sized walk in closet, but with huge shelves reaching up almost to the high ceiling instead of just clothes. The shelves were filled with bottles and containers, dried herbs and flowers – everything you could possibly think of to brew a potion.

"What's moondew?" The pinkette raised a brow at the liquid glowing liquid that swirled around the container. She'd never heard of it before, but that was quite expectable and regular for her since she'd only been exposed to what she liked to call 'the magic world' for only a few short days.

Hinata had popped inside of the storeroom and left Sakura alone in the classroom, which was a disaster waiting to happen. But she had faith in the pink haired girl and expected her to not touch anything for the brief seconds she was gone.

"Moondew can only be gathered on the night of a full moon so be careful with it." Hinata's calm voice called out from the inside of the storage, which caused Sakura to quietly back away from the precious liquid.

' _Better not touch that...' She cautiously thought to herself, imagining the wrath that would be leashed upon her if she broke that container._

Sakura didn't enjoy the earthy smell and the coolness of the storeroom, but Hinata didn't seem to mind. The pinkette had toured inside of the storeroom but still thought that the actual classroom was far more interesting, so she stayed out of Hinata's way while she gathered ingredients.

"What about this?" The curious pinkette asked as she pointed to a complex array of different glass tubes leading from one glass container to another.

Hinata's head popped out of the storage room. "That's used for separating ingredients from liquids, for example if you want a certain elixir to be extracted from let's say… basilisk blood."

"Ookay." Sakura responded, nodding her head. Her toes curled at the idea of monsters like basilisks actually existing, but before she could say anything else about the matter, Hinata's head was back inside.

The pinkette was overwhelmed by everything new, taking it all in. She was discovering a whole new world and wanted to know everything about it. The excitement made her feel somewhat electric, and she had to hold back on squealing whenever she saw something that intrigued her.

Then Sakura's eyes latched onto a stub sticking out of the wall. She walked over to the white, decorative circle that was placed on the wall near the enterance. Sakura wanted to touch it but hesitated, knowing well that Hinata had warned her to not touch anything that was unfamiliar to her.

' _What does this do? It's probably carved out of a unicorn horn or something..' Her imagination was running wild after seeing all of the things she had._

Hinata walked out of the ingredient storeroom with a basket full of bottles, containers and handfuls of dried herbs neatly tied together with ribbons. She closed the heavy door behind her and walked to the other side of the classroom, where Sakura was standing.

"What does this do?" Sakura asked, referring to the object she'd been fascinated by.

"It turns the lights on." Hinata tried her best to hold back her laughter, but couldn't help herself when Sakura awkwardly laughed and kneaded the back of her head sheepishly.

"Not everything pretty has to be magical, I suppose.." Sakura laughed at her own thoughts. Maybe she should tone down the excitement just a little bit or she'll confuse something as mundane as a water tap for a griffin claw.

* * *

After they, or Hinata to be exact, raided the ingredients storeroom, they popped out into the garden to gather a few more things they needed. Hinata had delegated Sakura the task of gathering rose petals while she went to look for a plant Sakura had never heard of called 'the sparkle blossom'.

At first Sakura had thought Hinata was joking. It honestly sounded like a fake name, but the pinkette had to bite her tongue when Hinata came back with delicate white flowers that dazzled like someone had sprinkled diamond dust on them. Sakura quickly learned not to question things that seemed odd to her, because _she_ was actually the odd one in this world. Hinata swiftly picked up the basket and placed the sparkle blossoms in with the rose petals.

"So we have olive branches, water lilies, mint and now these." Hinata mumbled, going through a mental list she had of what they were going to need. "We have everything we need. We should probably go and meet up with Ino and Tenten." She finally suggested, looking up at the tower where their room was in. Sakura nodded in agreement as they quickly made their way back into the castle's corridors.

* * *

Hinata and Tenten had taken charge of the potion brewing, while Ino and Sakura both started going through some tactics.

"-and when we're placed on the same team, it's simple. Everyone has their strengths and we work well together." Ino stated, earning a nod from Sakura, who was diligently going through a thick spell book and trying to memorize the spells that seemed important. She had been listening to Ino's detailed plan from start to finish, but her focus was on the thick book in front of her.

Ino glanced at the pink haired girl, leaning to rest against her elbow that was propped up on the sofa's armrest. Sakura was completely out of reach and her pink brows furrowed as she concentrated on the fine text of the spell book. She had been quieter than usual, which was a new twist, but Hinata needed everyone to be quiet while she worked on the potions so it didn't bother Ino as much as it otherwise would've.

"Hinata, how much longer until we can get some dinner?" Ino called out to the blue haired girl that was carefully stirring the simmering liquid in a small cauldron.

"A few minutes, I just need to make sure there aren't any clumps of powdered nightshade." The entranced witch responded, not moving her eyes from the potion she was mixing. Tenten was focused on bottling the last potion they'd brewed into small glass bottles. Every potion had a different kind of a bottle, so they wouldn't mix them up. That would've been a recipe for a catastrophe.

Ino smirked at Hinata's response and leaned over to the pinkette to quickly snatch the book away from her.

"Hey!" She protested as she tried to reach for the book that Ino had placed on the table, out of her reach. Sakura huffed and pouted at the grinning blonde.

"Since we have a few minutes, I'm going to teach you a spell that's simple and useful since it'll probably be dark where we're going tomorrow." Ino announced and pushed herself onto her feet, taking a few steps away from the sofa. Sakura's green eyes followed her, wondering why she didn't pull her wand out. Wasn't she supposed to teach her a spell?

"Okay, so, I'll teach you lux." Ino explained to Sakura, urging her to stand up from the comfortable armchair. "It's simple and easy, you can do it."

Sakura raised a brow at the blonde girl, still slightly irritated after Ino had snatched her book away. "What does it do?"

"When you're in a place where there is barely any light and you for some reason can't find your wand – not that you'd have any problem with that", Ino referred to Sakura's out of the ordinary wand-summoning-thing, "but if you ever find yourself needing a quick light lux is perfect."

Ino breathed out and opened her palm, holding it in front of her body. Sakura could feel her aura change and her breathing grew deeper as she channelled her powers through her body rather than a wand.

"Lux." Her eyes were closed and her voice was calm as she recited the spell. Suddenly a bright ball of light appeared in front of the blonde, illuminating her front completely. Sakura was surprised by how bright the light was, since it was hard to look at even from where she was sitting. The light hovered over Ino's open palm and moved when she moved her palm. Sakura watched the blonde in awe as she comfortably moved her hand around and the bright light followed it, playing with it in a way.

' _I wish I was that comfortable with spells..' Sakura thought while watching the blonde playfully dance with the bright light._

Something about Ino being so comfortable and how easily she moved around put Sakura off. How would she ever be able to do the same as her? Sakura had been told that simple spells could be performed without a wand, but she didn't expect to learn them so soon. She'd imagined herself needing way more skills and knowledge than what she currently possessed.

"Now it's your turn!" Ino ambitiously announced and closed her palm, the bright light disappearing as quickly as it had appeared. Ino took a hold of Sakura's hand and pulled her to her feet, to the pink haired girl's discomfort as she'd really grown to liking her spot on the armchair.

"So hold your hand out like this." Ino instructed, holding her palm in front of her chest. Sakura repeated the blonde's actions and opened her hand, holding her open palm in front of her.

"Now breathe in and out, calm your mind. Remember what Hinata told you about reciting a spell." Ino calmly instructed and closed her own eyes. Sakura listened to her friend, breathing in and out and clearing her mind of everything else.

"Now repeat after me, lux."

" _Lux."_

Sakura was surprised to see the bright ball of light appear in front of her. It was the first time she'd actually succeeded in a spell after trying it for the first time. The light wasn't as bright as Ino's, but she didn't care. Joy spread to Sakura's face as she smiled victoriously.

"I did it!" The triumphant remark escaped the pinkette's lips.

Ino smiled at her cheerful friend, congratulating her for a job well done. "That's great Sakura, I knew you could do it."

Sakura closed her palm, just like Ino did before and the bright light was gone. She opened her palm again just to make sure and was relieved to find out that the light shooting out from her hand wasn't permanently stuck to her. That would've been interesting. Sakura the walking reading light.

"Congrats, Sakura." Tenten grinned. She'd finished bottling the potions and was now wiping her hands with a clean towel. "You did better than I did on my first try."

Her words made the feeling of accomplishment feel even better.

"Alright." Hinata set the wooden spoon she'd used to stir the potion aside and stood up, interrupting the previous conversation as she hadn't been focusing on anything else but the potion. "This needs to simmer for an hour or so, which means that we can go and eat dinner!"

Tenten cheerfully threw her arms in the air. Her stomach had been making noises for half an hour, so she was extremely happy to get some food inside of her. They had made a conscious yet ill-advised decision of skipping lunch so that they had more time to spend gathering all the things they needed, which meant that none of them had eaten anything after breakfast that morning.

"To dinner!" Sakura cheered with Tenten, decisively pointing her finger at the doors that lead out of their room. Then they all marched out of the room, all hungry and desperate for some dinner.

* * *

"Mmm, pasta." Tenten murmured in delight and scooped some of the creamy deliciousness on her plate. They were apparently having a pasta themed dinner, since the long table they were getting their food from was filled with different kinds of pasta dishes ranging from pasta salads to mac & cheese to pasta carbonara that Tenten was currently filling her plate with. The freshly baked bread and the smell of basil filled the pinkette's nostrils as she grabbed herself a plate.

Now came the hard part. What would she choose when she wanted to taste everything?

Hinata had opted for a tomato-mozzarella salad and ravioli, both of which seemed absolutely delicious. Sakura looked at the salad hungrily but still found herself not being able to choose anything. Ino noticed her friends trouble, rolling her sapphire eyes at the pink haired girl. Sometimes she was just like a small child that needed some guiding.

"Sakura." She called out, gaining the attention of the pink haired witch. "Follow my lead."

Ino was obviously the smartest one of all of them that night as grabbed a little bit of everything onto her plate. She was just as indecisive as Sakura, so she had to face the same difficulties as her. The pinkette happily smiled as she copied the blonde's actions, filling her plate with different sorts of pasta dishes, her mouth watering at the sight of those beautiful carbs.

"Here you go, Sakura." Hinata kindly handed Sakura a piece of the freshly made, warm bread, which the pinkette gladly took. Now her plate was full of food, but she needed something else to complete her tray.

"Thank you!" She chimed and moved along the table to get something to drink. In the morning there had been heaps of different sized mugs next to the magical drink machine, but now there were different kinds of glasses next to the mugs. This time Sakura opted for a glass and not a cup, knowing far too well that consuming caffeine in the evening was the worst thing she could have done to her sleeping schedule.

And she needed the sleep for tomorrow.

Sakura placed the tall glass inside of the machine and started to scroll though her options. She didn't want anything hot and she wasn't in the mood to drink something like soda. She wanted something fresh to balance out the creamy deliciousness that awaited her.

The pinkette then decided on a mango ice tea that magically appeared in the glass seconds later after she'd picked it. The glass felt cool against her touch and the ice cubes tinkled against the glass as she brought the glass back onto her tray. Then she caught the fresh scent of mangoes and mentally patted herself on the back for her excellent drink choice.

Sakura lifted her tray up and scanned the large hall for her friends, not bothering with the levitation spell this time. She'd been the last one to get a plate in her hands, which wasn't her fault, since her friends throwing themselves in front of her just to be able to get food faster wasn't in any way controllable. At least not by her. Nobody should stand between a hungry girl and delicious carbs. Those two things were magnetic.

Finally she caught a glimpse of Hinata's blue hair and walked to her friends, who were already laying their trays down on a table. Her friends, Ino most likely, had picked out a table next to a window that had a gorgeous view to the garden. Sakura sat down next to the window, Tenten next to her Ino and Hinata on the opposite side of the table.

"Where are the guys?" Tenten mumbled as she stuffed food inside of her mouth.

"They're not here?" Sakura wondered, looking around the large dining hall. Why wouldn't they be there?

"They were probably the first ones here." Hinata chuckled and took a sip of her drink. "Knowing Naruto's appetite."

This caused the girls to burst out into light-hearted laughter. They weren't laughing at Naruto directly, but the idea of him bursting into the dining hall and dragging all of his friends with him was hilarious.

* * *

"Rise and shine, my dear witches!" Ino exclaimed, running around in their suite, making last minute preparations. Sakura winced when the blonde pulled away the drapes that exposed the whole bedroom to excruciatingly bright morning sunlight.

"Five more minutes." Sakura mumbled as she buried her head under her pillow, trying to hide from the light that burned her eyes, only to have it snatched away by Ino.

"Nope, we have to get ready." Her energetic movements were making Sakura sick as she ran out of their bedroom. Who the hell had that much energy in the morning?

Sluggishly the pinkette got up from her bed and slouched to the living room where she saw the other two tired girls laying on the sofas, who'd experienced the same wake up call as her. She followed their lead and crashed into an armchair, curling up with the same pillow that had been snatched away from her moments before.

Ino was almost annoyed by the lack of energy in the room. "C'mon guys, you can't sleep all day. We have a treasure hunt to win!"

Slowly the three girls woke up, the realization creeping up to them that today really was the day of the treasure hunt. Tenten started stretching her limbs and Hinata rubbed her sleepy, lavender eyes. Sakura tried to brush her fingers through her tangled hair, with no luck.

"That's better." Ino was very content with the three girls finally waking up and getting up on their feet.

"Why are we up so early? Breakfast isn't until eight." Tenten yawned and pointed to the large clock, which showed that they had 40 minutes until they had to be anywhere. That was 20 minutes of completely necessary sleep taken away.

But Ino waved her hand in the air like it was nothing. "We still have things to do!"

Hinata eyed the four small pouches placed neatly on the mantle of their fireplace. There was one for each girl. They had already filled the pouches with potion bottles and necessary things like compasses and such the night before. All the books had been read through and everyone knew the plan, at least vaguely.

So what did they have to do that wasn't already done?

"Like what?" Sakura questioned, raising a brow after coming to the same conclusion as Hinata.

Ino huffed and pointed to the three neat piles of clothing she'd placed onto the table. "Our outfits of course. Or did you think I'd let you run around in floral skirts?"

Sakura hadn't even noticed the neatly folded clothes, but again, she wasn't a morning person or the sharpest tool in the box after waking up. They had been right in front of her and she hadn't even seen them. This was legitimate proof that early mornings were a bad idea for everyone and that nobody should be even awake before nine.

"With these, the treasure hunt should be a piece of cake." Ino proudly declared, pointing to the outfit she was wearing. All of the outfits consisted of a top and leggings or shorts. The girls obviously couldn't have exactly the same outfits – Ino made sure that they were co-ordinated but still had a little flare of their own.

She was wearing purple sneakers, with a matching cropped hoodie and light grey leggings that reached her calves with white ribbons neatly tied to the leg. Her silky blonde hair was swept back onto her usual, high ponytail and she'd kept her face natural. Only someone who didn't care about their skin would wear makeup while exposed to the chance of exercising. But even without makeup, Ino still looked as gorgeous as ever.

' _Why does she have to be so perfect..' Sakura thought to herself, obviously jealous of her friend._

"Now get those cute little butts of yours into the as cute outfits I picked for you!" Ino cheered, throwing the piles of clothes to her friends maybe a little too enthusiastically as she managed to throw a pair of short on Hinata's face.

"Eh, sorry." The blonde sheepishly apologized, while Hinata peeled the article of clothing from her face.

Sakura looked at herself in the large mirror of their closet, twirling and turning in front of it. She'd been sceptical of the outfit Ino had chosen for her as she wasn't the most comfortable with her own body. The black leggings had diagonal mesh cut-outs that complimented Sakura's physique as they created the illusion of longer legs. She'd been worried most about the top half, but somehow she managed to look great. Ino had handed her a burgundy sports bra with similar mesh cut-outs to match the leggings and a zip-up black hoodie for more cover.

"Ino has her way with clothes." Sakura laughed as she traced her fingers along her stomach. She wasn't nearly as fit as Tenten or as tall as Ino, but she looked good. She had the bottom of the hoodie zipped, but left the top open, showing a little skin under the sports bra. Her figure looked slim and she felt fit. It was more important for Sakura to feel great rather than look perfect, but she did look _good_.

"Well I do when I have beautiful girls like you to dress up." Ino pointed out, watching Sakura pose in front of the mirror. The pinkette turned around in surprise as she hadn't expected the blonde to hear her, a faint blush rushing to her face as Ino's compliment registered in her mind.

Before Sakura could even consider saying anything differing from Ino's opinion, the blonde already held her palm up, shutting her up. "And don't you dare tell me otherwise."

In a way Sakura felt blessed to have met such amazing girls, and to have them as her friends was even better. They held her up and made her feel better about herself even when she was sceptical. She shyly smiled at the blonde, who smirked in return.

"Try these." Ino threw a pair of black sneakers to Sakura, who caught them with ease.

"These look brand-new!" Sakura breathed out as she examined the pair of shoes. She wouldn't have been surprised if she'd found a tag still hanging from them.

Ino flipped her hair over her shoulder and eyed the shoes in Sakura's hands. "I know, I bought them online but they didn't fit me. And since your feet are smaller than mine, you could probably squeeze into them."

Sakura sat down on the fluffy carpet and slid one of the sneakers on, feeling how it fit by wiggling her toes inside.

"They're perfect." She declared, tying the black laces of both sneakers into neat little bows.

"Great!" Ino answered and looked behind her shoulder to see Hinata and Tenten anxiously waiting for them to leave to breakfast.

"Can we go already?" Tenten whined as she held her hand on her stomach, showing that she was hungry.

"Yes." The blonde girl answered, laughing at Tenten's gesture. "Let's get some breakfast."

* * *

After they were finished with breakfast, they ventured to the castle's courtyard, next to the tower that encased the bright sorcerer's stone. They followed the mass of other students that were heading to the exactly same place, the place where the treasure hunt would start from.

In the middle of the neatly kept grass field was now a stage that everyone seemed to gather in front of. All of the teachers were either on or somewhere next to the stage. From far away Sakura could spot the familiar long, blonde hair of her mentor, who was talking with professor Kurenai at the back of the stage.

The pinkette looked around the crowd, trying to get a glimpse of how everyone else had prepared. She could tell that she and her friends were among the best dressed for the occasion – which was a _treasure hunt_. There were people wearing skirts and high heels, which were probably the worst shoe choice Sakura could've imagined.

"Say goodbye to your ankles." She heard Ino mutter as they passed a group of girls who for some reason thought that it was completely fine to wear heels and dresses during a treasure hunt that they were _warned_ would challenge their abilities in every way possible.

Some girls were still intensely staring at books for a last minute check, some were excited and some were so terrified that they'd curled up into a ball. Sakura gulped, not exactly knowing which of those moods fit her the best.

Ino steered their group slightly to the side from everyone else, and they settled on standing near to the stage but slightly to the side so that they had little more space and air to breathe. Sakura didn't mind the distance from everyone else. Now they could talk in peace and gather their thoughts without everyone, but Sakura's eyes were still circling in the crowd.

She and her friends had spent the whole day studying and preparing, so she didn't feel like she needed any more studying. All of the information she could've possibly shoved into her scull in the short amount of time they had had was there. But the idea was to survive with the skills you already had so that they could be fairly evaluated, so she didn't regret not studying all night. Subconsciously Sakura touched the black pouch hanging from the side of her leggings just to make sure it was still there. She sighed in relief as she felt the velvety fabric in her hand.

" _Hinata!"_

None of the girls could even react to the loud yell until a flash of blonde, spiky hair caught Hinata in a bone crushing embrace. Naruto happily hugged the blushing witch, who apart from the pinkness of her face looked like she was definitely going to pass out.

"Naruto, you idiot. She can't breathe!" Tenten angrily smacked the back of Naruto's head, which caused him to quickly glance at the girl who looked even more pale than usual.

With a silent 'eep', he instantly softened his grip on her and gently held her in his arms, staring into her lavender eyes.

"I'm so sorry Hinata! I didn't mean to!" He quickly apologized to the girl who was way too hazy to even understand what was going on. She was way too happy just being held by him and didn't think apologizing was even necessary.

"Eh, she'll be fine." Ino concluded, uninterested by the situation after having seen it so many times before. Her head turned to the direction where Naruto had run from and the pinkette could deduce from the face she was making that she was looking for something.

Or someone.

"Why are you here, Naruto?" Sakura was confused, again. They were just about to start the treasure hunt and be divided into teams, so why was he there? Was he there to cheer for them or something? Or maybe he was there because of Hinata..

The blonde blinked his blue eyes for a second. "Oh me?"

"Yes, Naruto. You. We're starting the treasure hunt soon." Sakura, who was getting slightly more irritated by the blonde, explained her thoughts further to him who in return grinned at her.

"Because we're going to be competing too." He explained, throwing his head towards the group of Appleton students that were surrounded by heaps of girls. "With you guys."

"Wait. You, Shikamaru, Neji and everyone else will be divided into teams with us?" Tenten abruptly questioned, placing her hands on her hips. Naruto slowly nodded, afraid that the bun-haired girl would hit him again.

"Oh we definitely want Shikamaru on our team." Ino announced to them, searching for the pineapple haired boy with her eyes.

Sakura cocked a brow at the blonde. "Why?"

Ino rolled her eyes at the clueless pinkette. "Because he is smart as hell and the best strategist I know. So don't and I repeat _don't_ play chess, poker or any of that sort against him."

Ino sounded like she had some experience with the subject, but the pinkette wasn't sure whether or not she wanted to know more about it. Sakura tilted her head awkwardly at the blonde whose brows were now scrunched up together. She understood the logic behind Ino's claims and was sure to avoid playing any games with Shikamaru after getting such a reaction out of her.

"I won't." Sakura laughed, brushing her fingers through her just brushed locks.

"There they are!" Tenten suddenly yelled, pointing to the three familiar guys trying to make their way through the sea of girls trying to get their attention. Sakura had to agree, it was them. Not only were they tall and easily to spot in the group of girls, but Sasuke and Shikamaru had hairstyles that were hard to miss even from as far away as they were.

Ino lifted her arms up, trying to signal where they were. "We're over here!"

"They won't hear you." Tenten rolled her eyes, doubtful of Ino, who in return stuck her tongue out at the brunette. But Sakura had to agree with Tenten, they were pretty far away from them and Ino's voice probably couldn't be heard over the screams and loud voices of the girls.

But to everyone's surprise, Shikamaru's head instantly shot up, which meant that he'd probably heard Ino's voice. He then shot a glance at the general direction where they were standing and tapped Sasuke on the shoulder, talking to him. The guys then slowly started to make their way to the direction of Ino's yell, until they spotted the familiar, cheerful blonde.

"Or they did." Tenten as dumbfounded as she was had to admit.

"So, Naruto here told me you're competing too." Ino teasingly told Shikamaru the minute he, Neji and Sasuke arrived to the spot they were standing in. For some reason Ino and Shikamaru had their own way of communicating, which usually ended up in the two bickering over a small thing, but Sakura found it cute in a way.

But would she get in the middle of it? Absolutely not.

"Yup, as troublesome as it is." Shikamaru tiredly sighed at the blonde, who was now offended by the fact that he didn't think competing with them wasn't interesting enough for his lazy brain.

Neji went straight past Sakura and pulled Naruto off of his cousin, who was still dazed from the firm hug the blonde had given her. His pale eyes shot daggers at the now scared Naruto, who tried to convince that it was purely an accident and that he hadn't meant to hurt Hinata at all.

"I-It's okay, Neji." Hinata finally stuttered out, a shy smile curving her pink lips. "It was nothing."

Sakura's eyes were drawn to a certain brooding raven haired boy, who tried his best to ignore all of the girls who tried to gain his attention. He was standing farther away from them, which was probably why the girls were still bothering and circling around him.

The minute Naruto, Shikamaru and Neji had joined their group, they were relieved of the unneeded attention they were given. Of course now Sakura and her friends got angry glares, but everyone apart from the pinkette was used to them, and she didn't care one bit.

Most likely they were jealous that they were going to 'steal' the guys away, which Sakura found absolutely hilarious. They were friends, what did the fangirls not understand about it?

But Sasuke for some reason didn't join their group and was left standing by himself. Well, not by himself since he already had a dozen friends hanging out with him. Sakura wondered if she should've helped him, but was she able to even if she wanted? She didn't even properly know the guy, apart from the fact that her palm made contact with his face after he called her stupid. In a way it was comedic to watch him try and keep calm when he was desperately annoyed by them, Sakura almost enjoyed it. He tried to be polite, but Sakura could see his frustration.

"Serves him right.." Sakura mischievously grinned to herself as her eyes brushed over his. His face showed no emotion, as usual, but Sakura saw the pleading look his eyes were giving her. She didn't want to help, not one bit.

But then a certain red haired girl caught her attention.

' _Karin..' Sakura felt like she was going to throw up the minute she saw her put her hands on his body._

Ino had noticed the same thing and walked next to Sakura to watch the situation unravel.

"You know, could really get her good right now." Ino's words piqued her attention. "If you wanted to, I mean."

Sakura raised one of her perfectly shaped brows at her friend, who now had a mischievous smirk on her face. Her eyes went straight to Sasuke, who was basically being molested by Karin and her friends. Sakura understood what she meant. She herself had no real interest in helping Sasuke, but Karin really needed to be put in her place and what pissed off Karin made Sakura happy.

' _We'll see just who his attention will be on now..' Sakura smirked to herself, referring to remark the red haired girl had made the day before in Kurenai's class._

Sakura gently ruffled her hair and opened the hoodie she had on all the way down, displaying her flat stomach and slender figure.

"I'm on it." The pinkette winked at her blonde friend, who lightly smacked her ass.

"Go get it, tiger." Ino smirked as she watched Sakura walk over to the group of girls.

For a second Sakura hesitated whether she should've done this or not. Even if he was tall and handsome and everything that a girl wanted, Sakura just couldn't look at his unemotional face. Naruto had referred to him as an ass when they were first introduced and he had been quite correct with his description.

"Oh Sasuke!" Sakura faked a smile as she yelled his name, grabbing his attention with a mischievous glint in her eyes. He was more than surprised to see the pinkette call out his name, but even more surprised by the face she was making.

"Oh come on, I've looked everywhere for you." Sakura seductively purred and with a slight swing to her hips as walked over to him, to all of the other girls' surprise and dislike. Sasuke on the other hand was baffled by the pinkette, since their relationship wasn't the friendliest.

Not that her expression had anything exactly _friendly_ about it.

Karin pulled her hands away from Sasuke's chest as if she was offended by Sakura walking over to them. When she got close enough, she wrapped her arms around Sasuke's neck and placed her lips on his ear, as if she was hugging him.

"Just play along." She whispered to him, devilishly pushing her body against his. Instantly she felt his strong arms snake around her waist, pulling her to him even more. Her emerald eyes caught a glimpse of Karin's absolutely horrified face, and she couldn't help but admit that it definitely made all of the effort worth it.

She winked at Karin, who was currently glaring at her with her fists balled up. She looked like she was about to explode, her face as red as her hair out of pure anger.

"Hi, Sakura." His deep, raspy voice called out to her as their eyes clashed, emerald staring into black. His sinful eyes lowered down and the pinkette could feel his gaze on her body. Sakura knew he was just playing along with her, but she couldn't help but feel her heart pound just a bit harder when he breathed out her name. The last time they talked has been the day before at breakfast and this was way different from those few words they'd exchanged. The pinkette tried her best to keep it cool and pulled away from the boy, his hands staying on her hips.

"Come on, we've been looking all over for you!" She sneaked away from his arms, grabbing his hand and pulled him to the direction of their other friends, walking away from the group of fangirls. Sakura could only imagine the looks on their faces and only dream of what Karin looked like, her face all red and eyes soon to pop out of her scull.

Slowly she led the raven haired boy out of the mass of female students, who were bothered by the fact that _she_ was taking _him_ away. When Sakura finally managed to get all the way back to her friends, she quickly let go of his hand. She turned to him and wasn't surprised that his face had gone back to its normal impassive self.

But for the slight moment he'd been something else other than his brooding self, Sakura had actually been interested. Maybe there was more to the dark Uchiha than she'd been let believe.

"You're welcome." She smugly smiled, keeping her cool like before and slowly walked over to Ino, who was extatic to see her friend return.

"Sakura that was amazing!" She squealed, holding onto her pink haired friend's shoulders and shaking her slightly. "Thank god for sending us a sex bomb like you! I have never seen her so furious, I had to take a picture to relish the moment!"

"Wow, I didn't know you held something like that in you." Tenten smirked, Ino's excitement was almost contagious.

But Sakura, as self-conscious as she normally was, actually enjoyed releasing that little sexy side of her's for once. She waved her hand in the air as if it had been nothing and slightly bowed, taking in all of their praises. "Thank you, thank you. I'll be here all week."

"Oh look, it's starting!" Hinata exclaimed as she pointed to the headmistress, who was now standing alone at the front of the stage in all of her glory. She had her wand in her hand and pointed it up at the sky, bright green sparks flying up and attracting the attention of everyone whose eyes hadn't already been on the prestigious witch.

"She's got style." Ino stated as she watched the headmaster pull back her wand now that she'd finally got everyone's attention. Her poised appearance was a sight to be seen in itself and the way she spoke got shivers running down her spine.

"Welcome, everyone." She greeted, her powerful voice carrying across the courtyard. "Today you will face challenges like never before. Your teachers and I have prepared a small contest for you, a treasure hunt of a sort that will test your knowledge, skills and power."

"The goal of this treasure hunt is to go deep under the castle and uncover hidden treasures that lure there. The deeper you go, the more precious the treasures will be. Your team's ranking will be based on the score your team gets. The most valuable treasure score the most points, but remember your skill set and don't put yourself in unnecessary danger."

Sakura felt excitement run through her veins as she listened to her mentor speak. She was already getting pumped up for the treasure hunt, which was mostly because she was highly competitive and wouldn't accept anything less than the first place.

"Like your professors have explained to you before, use all of your skills. Nothing is banned from this contest." Tsunade explained. "But there are rules. You mustn't harm your fellow competitors at any point or you will be disqualified. If a team comes out of the maze without a treasure, they will be disqualified. If someone needs help, you are required to help even at your own expense. We will be watching you work from here and hold the power for any decision-making later on."

Hinata's brows furrowed. "What does she mean by that?"

Ino shrugged as she watched the professors conjure up a familiar looking large glass orb with pieces of paper flying around inside of it.

"We will now randomly assign you to teams." Kurenai announced as she watched Tsunade pull out names from the glass orb and hand them to Kurenai for announcement.

Half a dozen teams were already assigned and none of them were called out. Sakura was happy about it, because their chances of making it into the same team grew bigger and bigger every time someone other than them was assigned to a team.

Ino was confident that they would all make it to the same team, so she didn't want to bother herself with being nervous. Like she had previously stated, worrying causes wrinkles. Hinata on the other hand was a nervous wreck, so she and Sakura were tightly holding hands as they listened carefully when their names would be called up.

"Next up, team number eleven." Kurenai called out and waited for Tsunade to give her the names that would be assigned to that team.

"Ino Yamanaka." Kurenai called out her first, which just made Ino contentedly smile.

"Naruto Uzumaki."

"Hinata Hyuga." Her name being called out made the blue haired girl jump out of happiness, but a certain blonde was even happier.

"Shikamaru Nara." A slight smirk rose to the boy's lips as he heard his name called out.

Sakura tapped Ino on the shoulder. "Your plan might actually work."

"Tenten-" Kurenai stopped to inspect the piece of paper closer until she rolled her eyes at the paper. "Just Tenten."

"And finally, Neji Hyuga."

Firstly everyone was happy that they were placed on the same team.

Except for Sakura.

"Wait, no. Nononono this can't be right." Ino called out as they realized that no more names would be called out and that Kurenai would be moving onto the next team. "You can't be in a different team! NO, you're a key element in my plan!"

Sakura felt her heartbeat slow down as she finally realized that she wouldn't be on the same team as her friends. They'd spent all of their time preparing to compete as a team and now she was excluded from that team.

"Oh Sakura." Hinata rushed to gently hug the girl, who just felt plainly let down.

"You know." Ino teasingly tried to get Sakura's attention in the hopes of possibly cheering the girl up. "Sasuke wasn't placed in our team either."

Sakura didn't like what Ino was suggesting at.

"Oh shut it, pig. You're just afraid that I'm going to win." Sakura stuck out her tongue, to which the blonde responded with her own tongue.

"Oh we'll see about that."

"Oh yeah?" Sakura smirked, confidently crossing her arms over her chest. "Well maybe we should bet on it."

Ino and Sakura's eyes shared the same devious glint that neither Hinata nor Tenten liked. "It's a deal pinky. The loser will have to do _anything_ the other person suggests."

But Sakura didn't think the stakes were high enough, if they were going to play ball they should actually be serious about it.

"For a day."

Now everyone else was listening in on the two girls, curious to see what they would end up in. Hinata and Tenten were both slightly scared of the two, who were both as thick-headed as to challenge each other. They would end up in a war if they were pulled in as a part of their little 'bet'.

With a smug grin, Ino nodded and agreed to Sakura's terms. It was settled, this was now a battle to the finish line and the pink haired witch was not going to lose.

Kurenai already held the next pieces of paper in her hands, which were for the next team.

"Next up, team twelve." Kurenai called out as she started going through the names on the list. Sakura didn't recognize the first two names, one being a student from Luna Nova and the other was from Appleton academy. Sakura nervously fiddled the zipper of her hoodie with her fingers, not knowing whether or not her name would be called out.

"Sasuke Uchiha." The name of the dark haired boy being called resulted in a variety of screams. One very loud one was most likely from the girl that was lucky enough to get on his team and the other ones were more along the lines of protesting and disappointment.

" _Unfair!"_

" _I didn't know he'd compete?! I wanted him on my team!"_

" _Shush I could still get to be in his team!"_

Sakura grinned at the thought of what Sasuke's team would look like. In the worst case scenario the rest of the members would be female and all hungry for the dark haired boy's attention. They wouldn't be able to accomplish anything with the girls in his group just swooning when he glanced at them. Sakura would pay money to see that.

" _Sakura Haruno."_

Her emerald eyes widened. She couldn't believe it. She did not just hear her name. The pinkette glanced around her and felt everyone's eyes on her, again. It was like the damn ball all over again. But slowly the realization that _she_ would be a member of Sasuke's team dawned up on her. _She_ was right in the middle of the mess that would be caused by the damned Uchiha and there was nothing she could do about it.

Sakura honestly wanted to bury herself. She'd thought that she could just avoid him for a few days and have him forget all about the scene she just pulled in front of him. Of course it hadn't been because of him, but it did get intimate, and they weren't in a place where she could just shrug it off as friendship. And now she had to be in a team with him? Hell no, she did not want to be in that situation.

But after a few seconds, Sakura grabbed herself by the neck. She would pull herself out of that mess. She wouldn't let it bother her, she would still win the whole damn thing, doing it all by herself if necessary.

Then her thoughts were interrupted by Kurenai calling out another name, a student from Appleton whose name that she didn't recognize either.

Great, now she had three guys and two girls in her team. That was enough, the other girl could distract Sasuke while she and the two guys would work. Yeah, she could still win this.

But then something happened that ruined everything.

Absolutely everything.

The last name that Kurenai announced made Sakura's eyes narrow. What had she done to deserve such a punishment?

 _Karin._

She was going to be in the same team as Karin.

* * *

❧ Goddess of Glam


End file.
